The Risks tab is the project's risk register. A risk is something that has not happened yet but could hurt the project. You open it from the project menu: RAID, then Risks. RAID stands for risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies: the things that can knock a project off course. In ProjectCAPEX the RAID menu holds Risks, Issues, Actions and Decisions, and dependencies have their own tab under Plan (see Dependencies).
What it's for
Use the register to see your exposure at a glance and to make sure every serious risk has an owner and a response. Four cards sit at the top: Total open, Critical or high, Unmitigated (open risks with no mitigation written) and Escalated.
How a risk is scored
Each risk has a Probability (Low, Medium, High, Very high) and an Impact (Low, Medium, High, Critical), each counted 1 to 4. The score is probability × impact, so it runs from 1 to 16. The score sets the level, and every level has one colour across the app:
- Critical (score 12 to 16): purple
- High (score 9): red
- Medium (score 6 to 8): orange
- Low (score 1 to 4): green
Before you start
Before you log risks
- You are a member of the project
- Your role can create risks (see Who can do this below)
- You know who should own each risk
- Optional: tasks exist in the plan, so you can link a risk to the work it threatens
How to log a risk
- Open the register
In the project menu choose RAID, then Risks.
- Start a new risk
Select New risk. A drawer opens titled Log a new risk.
- Describe and score it
Enter a Title, then choose a Category, Probability and Impact. The badge at the top shows the score and level as you change them.
- Plan the response
Fill in Owner, Mitigation strategy and Contingency plan. Under Tracking you can pick a Linked task, a Raised date and a Target resolution date.
- Save
Select Save risk. The app gives it an ID such as ABC-RISK-004, using your company's short code.
Reading the register
The Main table view groups risks by status: Open, Mitigating, Escalated, Accepted, Resolved and Converted to issue. Each row shows the risk ID, category, owner, probability, impact, score, status, raised date and target date. Use the search box to find a risk by ID or title, and filter by Owner, Status or Category.
The Heat map view is a 4 × 4 grid of probability against impact. Each cell shows how many live risks sit there (resolved and converted risks are left off). Click a cell to jump back to the table filtered to that combination. A button above the table shows the active heat map filter and clears it.
How to turn a risk into an issue
When a risk actually happens, it becomes an issue. Open the risk and select Convert to issue, then Convert. The app creates a new issue with the title, the impact as its severity, and the mitigation and contingency text carried into the description. The issue's priority follows the risk score. The risk's status changes to Converted to issue, and the new issue shows which risk it came from. See Issues.
Good to know
- Deleting a risk asks you to confirm first, and every create, edit, delete and conversion is written to the audit log.
- If you can see a risk but not change it, the drawer says you have read-only access.
- The mitigation and contingency fields have a dictation button when voice is available to you. See Voice and dictation.
- Status reports pick up the five highest-scoring live risks. See Status reports.
- Risks are part of every plan, including Team.
Who can do this
Admins, project managers, functional leads and technical leads can create and edit risks. So can the module roles: test manager, data migration lead, cutover manager, training lead and change manager. Stakeholders can raise a risk but not edit one. Only admins and project managers can delete a risk. Executive sponsors and viewers can read the register. For the full list, see Roles and permissions.