This article covers:
- What is a risk;
- Accessing the Risks entity;
- Standard Configuration;
- Calculated fields;
- Customising the Risks entity;
- Risk reporting.
What is a risk
Risks are uncertain events or conditions that, if they occur will have a positive or negative effect on a project's objective. Risks have to be identified and managed from the start of the project. A risk should have an assigned owner who would manage the risk. Although there is no start and end date necessarily, there should be a set follow-up date on a risk so that it is not left unmanaged. Should the risks be realised, they tend to become issues that must be dealt with.
PPO allows for the capturing of risks in a risk entity. The Risks entity can be renamed, depending on the requirement. For more details on renaming entities, see the following knowledge base article.
Accessing the Risks entity
The Risks entity can be accessed when you hover over the Projects Menu or from the Project View page. If you do not see the Risks entity, make sure that the entity has been enabled on your instance and that your user group has been granted access to the entity.
For more information about setting up user group access rights, read the following knowledge base article.
Standard Configuration
The Risks entity shows the following fields by default:
The Risks entity allows users to add a title and description for the risk, placing the risk in context. The contact person is the person who raised the risk. To classify the risk, users can specify a risk type and a risk status.
Every risk is awarded a probability factor (a chance that the risk may happen) and an impact factor (impact on the success of the project, should the risk occur). The probability and impact factors are rated on a scale of 0 (zero, lowest / not probable) to 5 (five, highest / most probable).
The probability and impact risks are used to calculate the risk rating and risk RAG.
The risk owner is the person responsible for resolving the risk. Users can also specify an action/response, which is the latest action or feedback on the risk. The follow-up date is the date by which a new action/response should be provided.
Calculated fields
The Risks entity offers the following calculated fields in order to assist in risk management:
Risk Rating: The risk rating is calculated by multiplying the Risk Impact and the Risk Probability. The rating is an indication of the severity of the risk and can place the risk in perspective with other risks.
Risk RAG: The Risk RAG shows the risk rating as a RAG (Red-Amber-Green) indicator. This allows users to quickly assess the health of the risk. The Risk RAG is calculated as follows:
RED: Risk Rating = 15 to 25
AMBER: Risk Rating = 8 to 14
GREEN: Risk Rating = 1 to 7
Age: The age field shows the number of days since the risk was logged
Create date: The create date shows the date the risk was logged/created
Days Overdue: The days overdue field shows how many days have passed since the Follow Up date.
Overdue?: The overdue field indicates whether the risk is overdue, due soon (next seven days), not overdue or closed. The colour coding makes it easy to identify which items require attention.
Customising the Risks entity
Should you wish to configure the risks entity to align to your own methodology, access the following knowledge base article which will guide you through the process of adding or updating existing data fields. If you also need assistance in the process, feel free to log a support call and the PPO Support team will gladly assist you.
Risk reporting
The risk reports available in PPO will assist the executives and project managers to track and manage the project risks. They are:
- Risk Report - this report shows all the current risk information (no history records are shown on this report).
- Risk Detail Report – The report includes all the fields on the Risk entity for all risk records and projects. If the “Include Project Information” checkbox is selected, the report will also include all the fields on the project entity.
- Risk History Report - this shows when the risk was updated, by whom and what the recent risk action/response was. This provides a complete view of how the risk has changed over the lifespan of the project.
For more information on the report explanations access the following knowledge base article.