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Keep “business-as-usual” risks out of your project risk register, and use it to record real threats and opportunities, along with what you plan to do about them.

One frequent complaint about many project risk registers is that they are filled with “risks” that will be addressed in the normal course of events. For example, a software development company may be undertaking a project to produce a new system, with an integration step towards the end of the project. Should the Risk Register include a risk that “errors might be found during integration,” or is this just a typical technical challenge faced during this type of project?

While it is true that projects are risky ventures that require uncertainty to be identified and managed proactively, it might be a mistake to include every uncertain task in the Risk Register. If this were the case, there could be a risk for every activity in the project plan: “Activity A might fail” or “We might have problems with Activity B” or “Unexpected problems might occur with Activity C.”

How should we handle these types of “business-as-usual” risks?

All risks share three essential characteristics:

1. They are in the future and have not yet happened

2. They are uncertain and might not happen

3. They would matter if they did happen

However, some of our planned project tasks also share these characteristics.

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September 2010:

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