RISK AND ISSUE REVIEW

Document Management

 

D       Date of  Change

Name

Cha                    Changes Made

1/6/07

Doug Friend

Updated Format and Instructions

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

Template Guidelines

 

There is often confusion between ‘risk’ and ‘issue’.

 

Risk                 A potential event that may have a significant negative affect on time, cost, quality and deliverables.

Issue                This is an unpredicted event that requires a decision otherwise a negative affect on the project may result.

 

By its very nature an issue will have some impact on the plan and schedule. It may be an issue that needs addressing urgently to get around any future problems. The affect on the plan could materialise in a number of ways e.g. alter deadlines, costs or specifications. In some cases, the impact may be difficult to ascertain.

 

Before we panic over a future event we must assess the risk versus the impact. One event may have a tremendous impact on cost and time but virtually no impact if the risk is very low e.g. the potential that an outside manufacturer may go bust. On the other hand, there may be an event which is highly likely to occur but with little impact e.g. people off ill, if cover is very good.

 

The above examples are possible future events, issues which arise will need to be assessed for impact. Full risk assessment is a subject in its own right. One can carry out simple risk assessment by utilizing the experiences of people or better by assessing various outcome scenarios on say MS Project software e.g. will a delay of 2 weeks affect anything? It is best to view this on the software, as humans are not very apt at remembering all of the links in the schedule.

 

All impacts need to be assessed not only for delays but costs, specifications, environmental, legal and regulatory impact. There should be some mechanism for recording risks and issues together with any impacts and actions taken. Make sure these documents are reviewed at regular intervals as part of the control process.

 

Project no

Add code number

Date

Add date risk or issue raised

Ref. number

Add a number to clarify each risk or issue individually                           

 

Title / description

A brief description of the risk or issue. Keep to known facts and not speculation.

 

Potential impact

Keep it succinct. Consider timelines, personnel, cost, legal, regulatory, health and safety, specifications, marketing and environmental impacts as well as others.

 

Priority

What ever system is employed here it is important that everyone recognises it. For example, keeping it simple, one might have high, medium, and low. These might refer to the speed of any decision making e.g.

            High                Decision required as soon as possible as the impact will be large.

            Medium          Decision required within 1 month as impact is manageable.

            Low                 No action necessary as impact is low.

 

Status

One needs to be able monitor the progress of each issue or risk. The status tries to do this. One method of doing this is to classify the issue or risk as,

Open               Still not resolved, no decision has been made and therefore there is no action.

In progress        Action decided but not yet complete.

On hold  Action decided but progress halted for some reason.

Closed               Complete.

Action

Keep it succinct and make it unambiguous. At the time that a risk is identified and documented it must be clear as to who will take what action, and by when. I do no use ETA

Responsibility

The person who will take ownership of the action.

Review date   Either the date of the next regular review meeting for risk and issues or another appropriate date.

 

Don’t forget to have a suitable backup plan in the event of a disaster. Consider technological redundancy.

In general, it would be a luxury to have a specific individual on the project team to advise on risk. As such it is the responsibility of the Project Manager to make sure suitable procedures are in place, if needs be resourcing the expertise externally.

 

The Risk Review is supporting documentation that is summarized in an Issue Log where you will track the progress for reporting to the team. You will cover each issue at each progress meeting to verify progress and to identify any potential negative events that take place. In preparation for progress meetings I update the Issue Log and Print to discuss in the meeting. 

 

Each issue will require one or more Action Items. Like the Issue Log the Action Item Log provides an easy to update and easy to read spreadsheet. From that you can easily identify stuck action items before they too become an issue.

 

 

 

 

RISK AND ISSUE REVIEW

 

 

 

Project no:                                                                                                      Date:

Ref. number:                                                                         

Title:

 

Description:

 

 

 

 

 

Potential impact:

 

 

 

 

 

Priority: High / Medium / Low

 

Status: Open / In Progress / On Hold / Closed 

 

Action:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Responsibility:

 

Attention Date: ____/____/____

 

Review Date: ____/____/____