An important step in developing the BIA is identifying the mission-critical business functions and processes, a task that is not always easy. Two of the most important points to remember about this process is that the experts have the key information, and using different data collection methods to get this information will be necessary.

Mission-critical business functions are those that are considered vital to an organization. They are derived from critical success factors, or CSFs. CSFs are the elements necessary to perform the mission and are required for the success of the organization.

FIGURE 12-5 shows that processes are the underlying actions that contribute to the CSFs. In other words, certain processes result in achieving CSFs. Successful CSFs result in performing CBFs.

For example, a company generates the majority of its revenue from online sales. Thus, selling products from the website is a CBF. However, to say the company needs to sell products to be successful isn’t enough. The underlying factors and processes that are needed to sell the products must be identified.

For example, a company sells widgets online. Some of its underlying CSFs could be:

• Best widgets available
• Motivated employees
• Customer satisfaction
• Effective advertising

Different processes support each of these CSFs. For example, some of the processes that support customer satisfaction are:

• Satisfying buying experience
• Competitive pricing
• On-time delivery

Many companies document these processes with workflows. If workflows exist, they can easily be used to determine the steps in the processes. If they don’t exist, the steps in a process should still be able to be documented.

On-time delivery is an important process that supports customer satisfaction, and it includes several steps. Documenting the steps makes identifying the critical resources needed to ensure on-time delivery easier.

Figure 12-2, presented earlier in the chapter, shows the elements involved in the product shipment phase. The actual workflow could be:

1. The web server sends orders to the warehouse database.
2. The warehouse application identifies new orders.
3. The application notifies warehouse workers of new orders, including the location of the product.
4. Warehouse workers retrieve the product.
5. Warehouse workers package and ship the product.

With this knowledge, the critical resources required for on-time delivery can now be identified. They include:

• The database server hosting the warehouse database
• Communication between the database server and the web server
• The application server hosting the warehouse application
• Employees in the warehouse
• Shipping supplies and shipment method