Working with the Risk Register and Project Risks

This how-to article will help project request reviewers and project team members to document and manage risks using the Portfolio Planning and Projects applications in Work Management. 

Who can use this feature?

  • Available in a Work Management Project application
  • License Requirement: Client or higher
  • Application Access: User must have access to Work Management and the specific Project application
  • Application-level Security Role: User's security role in the Project application must include:
    • Users with Client license or higher can: Update Risks and Manage Risk Categories
    • Users with Student Technician license or higher can: Add Risks and Edit Risks
    • Users with Project Manager license or higher can: Delete Risks and Move Risks

Overview

The Risks Register enables project request reviewers and project team members to record and manage risks separately from issues. Project risk management usually begins during the request phase and continues throughout the project lifecycle. Project risks entered during the request process in a Portfolio Planning application remain with the request when it transitions to become a project in the corresponding Project application. The Risks Register was designed to support risk tracking in accordance with PMBOK guidelines and terminology.

Organizational Risks help evaluate the risk of requests and projects against preset organizational risk categories, enabling comparison of organizational risk levels between projects and requests. The Risks Register tracks risks specific to the request or project and is not intended for comparison between them.

Where to Find This

Access the Risk Register of an existing project:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to View Applications, and select the appropriate Project application.
  2. Click the project Name in the left navigation under Projects.
  3. Click Risk Register in the left navigation.

Access the Risk Register of a project request:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to View Applications, and select the appropriate Portfolio Planning application.
  2. In the left navigation, click Project Requests.
  3. Locate the appropriate Project Request in the list, then click its name.
  4. On the Request tab, click Risk Register in the left navigation.

Creating Project Risks

To add a new risk:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to the Risk Register for the project or project request.
  2. Click the +New button.
  3. Enter a Title.
  4. Select the risk’s Category from the dropdown.
    • Common categories include budget, scope, resources, sponsorship, vendor, and technology.
    • These values are configurable per project or request.
    • To add a new category, click the + plus button to the right of the Category dropdown.
  5. Select Threat or Opportunity?
    • Risks can be categorized into threats that may harm the project and opportunities that benefit it. Different response strategies are available for opportunities and threats.
  6. Select a Response Strategy from the dropdown. Refer to the definitions in the tool tip for details.
  7. Fill in the remaining fields, referring to the tool tips for more details.
  8. Click the Save button.

Understanding the Risk Matrix

The Risk Matrix provides a graphical summary of documented risks by their probability of occurrence and the impact should that occur. Risks are assigned an urgency value based on the probability and impact values entered, and together the three values are used to map the risks into the matrix, where they are represented by a number. If more than one risk has the same values, the number will be greater than one. The numbers are also linked to the relevant risk records.

Creating Project Level Risk Categories

To configure risk categories per project or request:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to the Risk Register for the project or project request.
  2. Click the Manage button (gear icon) in the toolbar.
  3. Select Categories.
  4. Click the + Add button.
  5. Enter a name for the category in the field and click Save.

Risk categories may also be added during the risk creation process using the plus button next to the category field.

Examples of Risk Categories

Common Risk Categories on project and project request include:

  1. General (provided on all projects "out of the box")
  2. Budget
  3. Schedule
  4. Resource
  5. Technical
  6. Vendor
  7. Priority

Removing the Risks Register from a Project

If a project manager prefers not to use the Risks Register, it can be removed from both the components and sections for a project.

To remove the risk register from a project:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to View Applications, and select the appropriate Project application.
  2. Click the project Name in the left navigation under Projects.
  3. Click Settings in the left navigation. 
  4. Scroll down to the Components section and uncheck the box next to Risks Register.
  5. Click Save.
  6. You may need to click Refresh in the toolbar to see the change.

Searching Risks

Every project request and project Risks Register offers a search capability.  Searching allows you to filter and sort risks on a per-project or per-request basis and save those search settings for future use.

To use the risks search:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to the Risk Register for the project or project request.
  2. Click the Filter button (funnel icon) on the right side of the toolbar.
  3. In the Risks Filter popup, set the desired filter criteria.
  4. Click the Apply button.
  5. To save the search settings for future use, click the Save Search button in the Risks Register toolbar.

Configuring Risk Attributes and Statuses

Users with administrator-level access to the specific Project application can add or modify Risk Register configurations. 

Risk attributes are custom, user-defined fields that can be added to capture additional information about risks.

To add risk attributes:

  1. Open the Project application admin interface:
    1. Project Application Admins: In Work Management, click View Applications, select the Project application, click the gear icon in the top-right corner, then select Admin from the menu
    2. Global Admins: In TDAdmin, go to Applications, then select the Project application
  2. In the left navigation, click Custom Attributes, then Risk Attributes.
  3. Click the +New button.
  4. In the New Risk Attribute window, enter the Name, Header Text, and other details.
  5. Click the Save button, then close the Risk Attribute window.
  6. You may need to click Refresh at the top of the admin page to see the new risk in the list.

Default risk statuses are provided per the PMBOK standard, or they can be customized. Admins can set the class of each status and identify which status is the default for newly created risks.

To configure risk statuses:

  1. Open the Project application admin interface:
    1. Project Application Admins: In Work Management, click View Applications, select the Project application, click the gear icon in the top-right corner, then select Admin from the menu
    2. Global Admins: In TDAdmin, go to Applications, then select the Project application
  2. In the left navigation, click Statuses, then Risk Statuses.
  3. To modify an existing status, click Edit on the right end of the status row and update the status.
  4. To add a new status, click the +New button and fill in the fields.
  5. To deactivate a status risk, click Edit on the status line and then uncheck the Active checkbox.
    • Risks with this status will remain in this status until edited, at which point the user will be prompted to select a new status.
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