01 · Purpose
Why and when to use it
Why?
It enables preparation before an uncertain event causes a serious delay, cost increase or loss of useful evidence.
When?
Begin in Define and review risks throughout the project, especially before data collection, experiments and rollout.
Who takes part? The team identifies risks with stakeholders; each material risk has an owner; the sponsor decides escalated responses.
02 · Application
How to apply it
Start with: Objectives, assumptions, dependencies, stakeholder concerns, planned activities and experience from similar work.
- Describe each risk as a cause, uncertain event and consequence.
- Assess likelihood and impact using agreed criteria.
- Prioritise risks without treating ordinal scores as precise financial values.
- Select preventive actions and a response if the event occurs.
- Assign an owner, trigger and review date.
- Monitor changes, act on triggers and manage realised risks as issues.
03 · Example
A warehouse dispatch project
Original illustrative example. All quantities, targets, roles and timings below are fictional teaching assumptions, not findings from a real project.
| Risk | Assessment | Response / trigger |
|---|---|---|
| If timestamp definitions differ between shifts, the baseline may be inconsistent. | Likely; high effect on evidence quality. | Validate definitions on both shifts before collection; trigger: conflicting interpretations. |
| If peak demand removes staff availability, observations may cover only quiet periods. | Possible; high effect on representativeness. | Agree cover and sampling windows; trigger: cancelled observation slots. |
| If a pilot delays packing, the carrier cutoff may be missed. | Possible; high service impact. | Set a stop condition and recovery route before testing. |
04 · Interpretation
What the result tells you
The risk register is useful when it changes decisions and actions. “High” identifies attention needed; it is not a calculated probability. After staff availability is already lost, track the resulting issue and recovery action.
Completion check: A current risk register with prioritised uncertainties, owners, preventive actions and response triggers.
05 · Judgement
Mistakes and limitations
Common mistakes
- Recording vague risks such as “communication”.
- Scoring risks but assigning no response or owner.
- Using project risk assessment as proof of a process root cause.
Limits of the tool
Teams cannot foresee every event. Review assumptions and emerging risks rather than relying on a register completed once at kickoff.
07 · Reading
Sources and further reading
Toolset backbone: Six Sigma+Lean Toolset: Mindset for Successful Implementation of Improvement Projects, second edition, edited by Stephan Lunau, with Renata Meran, Alexander John, Olin Roenpage and Christian Staudter (Springer, 2013). This reference identifies the toolset; the book text was not available for a chapter-level comparison in this development pass. The explanations, application sequence and fictional examples here are original LeanTrainingLab teaching material. Linked readings provide background; they do not prescribe every example or target.