Map to potential incidents
Mapping potential incidents to assets & resources
Disruptive incidents have the potential to result in the unavailability or malfunctioning of affected assets and resources. These assets & resources, if disrupted, are likely to also disrupt those processes that depend upon their continued availability. The disrupted processes are then likely to similarly disrupt the products, services or other critical objectives that utilize those processes. The mapping process allows the User to set up these relationships so that dependencies and impact can be analyzed in a simple to understand manner. The BCMS method of analyzing the organization's critical operations and activities enables the User to view in one screen all organizational components that would be affected by an incident. It also enables the User to manage the RTO, MTPD and criticality values for each component using the integrated mapping process and dependency function. This enables the setting of priorities and mobilizing critical resources towards those disrupted components that would have the greatest impact on the organization.
Click on the "Map potential incidents to selected asset & resource" button to access the asset & resource mapping area. Click on either of the two "?" in this mapping area for further guidance on this part of the mapping process.
In most organizations, hazards, threats and other risks can result in disruptive incidents that interrupt the normal operational functions. In the BCMS, products, services and other critical objectives are mapped to processes and these processes are in turn mapped to the organization's assets and resources. An important part of this risk analysis process is the identification of potential incidents that will threaten the availability of each key asset or resource. Using the business continuity mapping process, all these operational components should be mapped to each other to examine the affect and consequences of an interruption to any one component. This enables meaningful analysis of potential incidents and the resultant impact on the key operational functions.
In Module 5, click on the "Map potential incidents to selected asset or resource" button. In the pop-up that appears, potential incidents that have already been mapped to the selected asset or resource are displayed in the left hand list box. The full list of potential incidents are displayed in the right hand list box. Use the top arrow to map potential incidents to the "Mapped potential incidents" list box. Use the lower arrow to remove potential incidents from the "Mapped potential incidents" list box.
The full list of potential incidents that have already been set up in the BCMS are listed here ready for the mapping process. This list box supports the allocation or de-allocation of potential incidents to the selected asset or resource as part of the mapping process. Adding new potential incidents, deleting potential incidents, editing potential incidents or managing the hazard and threat types, is achieved through the buttons located at the foot of the right hand list box. Clicking each of these buttons and then clicking the "?" on the pop-up that appears will access further guidance on how these activities are to be handled. Using the hazard and threat types function enables grouping and sorting of the potential incidents. Clicking the "Type" button and then clicking the "?" on the pop-up that appears will access further guidance on these activities.
Add a new potential incident
During the mapping process, where the User needs to add a new potential incident it can also be done from within module 5. Clicking the "+" button at the foot of the potential incident list box in module 5, opens up a pop-up window that allows the User to add a new potential incident and assign a threat or hazard type code.
To add a new potential incident, enter the new potential incident name in the pop-up window, and click the "Save" button. The list of potential incidents will be immediately updated.
Delete selected potential incident
To delete an existing potential incident, select the required record and click the delete button. If the potential incident does not have existing mapped relationships then a pop-up will appear asking you to confirm this action.
If the potential incident has one or more existing mapped relationships then a warning message will appear and these will need to be cleared before the deletion process can be completed. Mapped relationships are usually cleared through the mapping (out) arrows.
Edit selected potential incident
To make changes to the name or type of a selected potential incident, click the "Edit" button and a new pop-up will appear.
Type in or correct the potential incident name and / or change the hazard or threat type, then click the "Save" button and the record will be automatically updated in the list box.
Reference material:
- Go to www.business-continuity-expert.com/bce-business-continuity.htm for explanations on business continuity
- To obtain extra info on business continuity management go to www.business-continuity-expert.com/bce-business-continuity-management.htm
- For supplementary knowledge on contingency management go to www.business-continuity-expert.com/bce-contingency-management.htm
- Further details can be found at www.business-continuity-expert.com/bce-bcp-plan.htm