Impact, Probability & Risk Rating Configuration

The use of impact, probability, and risk ratings in project management provides a systematic and data-driven approach to identify, assess, and prioritise project impacts. It empowers project managers to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and develop robust strategies for managing potential threats to project success.

Through the impact, probability & risk rating page; administrators can set which of the impact types will have impact, probability and risk rating fields associated to them, and set custom weightings for risk rating calculations.

Accessing the Impact, Probability & Risk Rating page

In order to get to the Impact, Probability & Risk Rating setup page, you'll first need to navigate to the Administration Console page from the Avatar menu.

Then, navigate to the Project Settings section of the administration console, and click on Impact, Probability & Risk Rating to access the Impact, Probability & Risk Rating page.

Setting up Impacts, Probability & Risk rating

The Impacts, Probability, and Risk Rating setup page allows you to configure the values and applicability of fields across different impact types. This page is divided into three sections: Impact, Probability, and Risk Rating.

	Impact measures how much the risk event could negatively affect the project's objectives or deliverables.
	Probability measures the likelihood that a specific risk event will occur.
	Risk Rating helps prioritise risks based on their potential severity and likelihood of occurrence. Risk Rating = Impact x Probability

Key Features:

1. Select Applicable Impact Types
   Use this field to define which impact types (e.g., Dependency, Issue, Risk) are associated with the selected field (Impact, Probability, or Risk Rating). If left empty, the field applies to all impact types by default.
   
   

2. Add Option
   Define the potential values for each field. For instance, in the Impact or Probability sections, you can create levels such as Low, Medium, High, and Very High, assigning weights to each level to indicate its severity or significance.
   
   

3. Default Value
   Set a default value from the list of options. This value will be pre-selected unless changed during data entry.
   
   
   

4. Define Ranges for Calculated Values (Risk Rating Only)
   In the Risk Rating section, you can specify ranges to categorise the overall calculated rating. These ranges help convert calculated numerical values into meaningful categories. For example:
   • 0–3: Low
   • 4–8: Medium
   • 9–15: High
   • 16+: Very High
     
     
5. Function for Calculation (Risk Rating Only)
   The Risk Rating section includes an additional field for calculating an overall rating using predefined functions. You can choose from the following:
   • Average: Calculates the mean of all associated values (e.g., Impact and Probability).
   • Multiply: Multiplies the associated values to produce the overall rating.
   • Sum: Adds the associated values to determine the total risk rating.

Default Settings:

• The Impact field is always associated with all impact types.
• The Probability and Risk Rating fields are associated with the Risk impact type by default, unless additional types are specified.

Note that if the Impact, Probability & Risk Rating terminology has been renamed in the Project Setup configuration page, the new terminology will be displayed on this page.

Impact, Probability & Risk Rating Bulk Edit 

You can use the bulk edit functionality to create, update or delete impacts, probabilities and risk ratings. 

Select Bulk Edit under the Tools menu to open the bulk edit dialog.

Click on the Download button to download the file. Leave the Include existing data option checked if you want the file to include existing data. Uncheck the option if you want to just view the file template. 

You can find the description of the file columns in the next section. 

Column Description

Impact & Probability Tab

Risk Rating Tab

Rules for Impact Types:

The following options will be applicable as default options for Impacts types:

• Impact will always be applied to Risk and Issue impact types.
• Probability & Risk rating is always applied to Risk impact type.
• In the case of Change, Issue, Dependency, Variance or Lessons Learned impact types - If Impact is applied to the impact type, probability is not applied, and Risk Rating is applicable - the risk rating will be calculated considering probability as the highest value.

Bulk Edit:

• For impacts that do not have values set for Impact/Probability, the default value will be applied.
• For risk impact types that do not have values set for Impact/Probability, the default value will be applied and the risk rating calculation will be derived from the applied default values.