Risk Assessment, Evaluation & Mitigation Process

Whenever we think of risk, we invariably associate it with uncertainty and the possibility of something going wrong. The discipline of risk management focuses on identifying and assessing possible risks and for each risk thus identified, prepare a plan to face it, when it does occur! There’s a lot of misunderstanding about a risk management strategy being able to eliminate every risk that you can probably think of. In fact, each phase of the risk management effort, right from identifying risks, assessing risks to coming up with mitigation strategies, has its own benefits and they are listed as follows.

Identifying risks is by far the most crucial phase of the risk management process. The most obvious benefit is that all the risks that are identified at the start of a project are considered in the mitigation strategies. This in turn, implies all risks that are identified are most likely to be potentially resolved in a planned manner without affecting the objectives of the project and the end result.

Risk Assessment Benefits

This phase entails focusing on each identified risk and assessing its impact on the project or organisation. The measures planned to eliminate or minimise the risks assessed, are a result of a constructive debate or discussion among the various stakeholders. The greatest advantage of this process is that it serves to bring the various views onto the table and in the process of finalising potential solutions, everyone is brought to the same page. This in turn brings forth a sense of accountability in all stakeholders (including external vendors, contractors, etc.), which is one of the goals of risk management.

Risk Analysis and Evaluation Benefits

It is a subset of the risk assessment process, where each risk is described along with its attributes such as significance and likelihood of occurrence, recommendation to minimise risks and stakeholder profiles, etc. Each risk is mapped to a business function or process which results in allocation of ownership of the risk.