Project Risk and Risk Register

Project Risk

Every project, regardless of size, involves some sort of risk. Thus, it is critical that the project team identifies key risks at the outset of the project and plans actions to manage such risks. In dealing with project risk, the project team can adapt one or more of the following strategies:

  • avoid
  • mitigate
  • transfer
  • accept

One strategy not on the list—for good reason—is ignore. Even the simplest potential risk can seriously influence a project’s schedule. Moreover, risks evolve as the project progresses. Some risks go away, but are replaced by others. For example, once the project team decides it needs to procure equipment for a project, seller risk has been added, but can be mitigated with a good contract.

Project Risk Register

To properly identify and plan for project risk, the project team, often led by a risk management expert, will develop a risk register. While formats vary, risk registers at a minimum will list the types of risk, probabilities, potential impacts on the project, and projected responses to such risk. The risk register then becomes a part of the overall project management plan. Some plans may even use color coding to indicate the level of severity of specific risks.