People confuse risks with problems that already exist. How do we separate them?
Risk-issue confusionDescribe a risk as an uncertain event or condition and an issue as something already requiring resolution. Link them when appropriate without losing the distinction between prevention and response.
What to do now
- Check whether the event has occurred
- Record present facts separately from uncertainty
- Assign the appropriate response owner
- Connect related risk and issue records
When to escalate
Escalate when
Misclassification delays a response to an active problem.
Who decides
The accountable risk owner
Example
Missing access today is an issue; the possibility of losing access next month is a risk.
Mistake to avoid
Debating terminology while a live disruption continues.
Prevent a repeat
Review whether response tasks and trigger conditions remain appropriate as the project changes.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Documents
- Tasks
- Approvals
Store the risk assessment as a controlled project document and assign response tasks; do not assume a native risk engine is enabled. See the platform
Related cases
- Several small risks share the same cause. How do we manage them?Correlated risk exposure
- The sponsor says discussing risks is negative. How should I present them?Suppressed risk transparency
- My team confuses effort with duration. How should we estimate?Effort-duration confusion
- How do we measure PMO effectiveness?PMO activity-versus-outcome confusion