Impact analysis

This was
defined by Bohner and Arnold as identifying the potential consequences of a change, or estimating what needs to be modified to accomplish a change,When a detailed assessment is undertaken to forecast the characteristics of the main potential impacts. However impact analysis can simply define as the
process of understanding the complete effect of a particular change. So, it determined which the environmental impacts of a process, product or facility are determined while identifying the full consequences of change.
Impact analysis is also known as Change Impact Analysis and Solution Effect Analysis. The intended of Impact analysis is to help and understand the scale of loss which could occur. In the same time this study defines critical business processes and the resources needed to support them. It will cover many issues such as loss of stakeholder confidence, not just direct financial loss, and reputational damage and so on.

 

Impact analysis stage can broken down into three overlapping phases such as,

 

Identification

Specify the impacts associated with each phase of the project and the activities undertaken

 

Prediction

Forecast the nature, magnitude, extent and duration of the main impacts

 

Evaluation

Determine the significance of residual

 

In the same time we can identify three types of Impact Analysis Techniques such as,

Traceability

In Traceability links between requirements, specifications, design elements and tests are captured and Relationships analyzed to determine the scope of an initiating

 

Dependency

In Dependency, Linkages between parts, variables, logic, modules etc. are assessed to determine the consequences of an initiating change.

Experiential

In Experiential,
impact of changes is often determined using expert design knowledge.

Normally in the business field organizations are often required to carry out an impact analysis to determine the potential impact of the proposed changes. This process use to analyzing all business functions and the effects.

In business field we can identify fundamental components of impact analysis should be identifying the following areas,

'Hard' Impact

Financial loss, breach of standards, failure to comply with regulations

'Soft' Impact

Placed on loss of competitive advantage, damage to reputation

The real purpose of a business impact analysis is to identify those systems that when absent would create a danger to the enterprises survival and also to ensure those systems revive the correct priority in the subsequent business continuity plan.