In this article, we will help you to understand how to add and manage risks.

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Overview

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Why Add Risks in Nimble?

Some of the Best Use Cases for Using Risks Workitem in Nimble

Understanding Risk Attributes

About Risk Index — How Risks are Quantified

Steps to Add & Manage Risks

Common Operations to Manage Risks

Overview

Risks are potential events or situations that can impact your project objectives if they occur. Managing risks proactively helps teams anticipate uncertainties, minimize negative impacts, and stay on track to achieve project goals.

Nimble provides a dedicated Risk workitem to identify, assess, and monitor risks throughout the project lifecycle. This article explains the rationale behind adding risks and how to manage them efficiently using Nimble.

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The Risks workitem is available under the Manage Menu of each project.

Why Add Risks in Nimble?

  • Proactive Risk Management: Risks help project teams identify possible threats before they happen, enabling preventive or mitigation actions.
  • Project Planning and Preparedness: Capturing risks upfront ensures that all potential issues are visible to stakeholders and considered in the planning phase.
  • Tracking and Mitigation: Risks can be tracked, prioritized, and resolved in a structured way, ensuring they do not derail the project’s success.
  • Centralized Visibility: All risks are maintained in one place, making it easier to monitor and update their status as the project progresses.

Some of the Best Use Cases for Using Risks Workitem in Nimble

  • New Project Planning: Identifying risks related to budget, scope, or technology when starting a project.
  • Change Management: Documenting risks associated with introducing new processes, tools, or team changes.
  • Vendor or Third-party Dependencies: Tracking risks when critical deliverables are dependent on external vendors or partners.
  • Compliance and Security: Capturing risks related to regulatory changes, security vulnerabilities, or audits.
  • Time-sensitive Deliverables: Identifying risks that could impact deadlines, especially for fixed-date projects or launches.

Understanding Risk Attributes

When you add a Risk workitem, you’ll capture some of the key details that help assess and prioritize risks:

Field Purpose
Name Short title to identify the risk.
Description Detailed explanation of the risk.
Priority The chances of happening risk in your project. Enter values between the range of 1 to 100.
Probability (%) ikelihood of the risk occurring (1 to 100).
Risk Impact Severity of the risk’s effect (Small, Manageable, Critical, Catastrophic).
Due Date Target date to resolve or review the risk.

Note: We have only given an understanding of some of the key attributes in the above table.

About Risk Index — How Risks are Quantified

Risk Index: The Risk Index is a calculated value that helps assess the overall level of risk. It is calculated by multiplying the Probability (%) of occurrence and the weight assigned to Risk Impact, and then expressing the result as a decimal (fraction).

Formula: Risk Index = Probability(%) × Risk Impact

Probability (%) — Chance of the risk happening (value between 1 and 100)

Risk Impact — Weight based on severity:

  • Small = 1
  • Manageable = 2
  • Critical = 3
  • Catastrophic = 4

For example, if a risk has:

  • Probability = 60%
  • Risk Impact = Critical (3)

Risk Index = (60%) × 3 = 0.60 × 3 = 1.80
When further normalized (e.g., divided by 10 to bring it between 0 and 1):
Normalized Risk Index = 1.80 ÷ 10 = 0.180

Final Computation: Risk Index = ((Probability(%) × Risk Impact) ÷ 10

Summary in Plain Language:

  • Risk Index shows how serious a risk is, considering both its chance of occurring and how big an impact it would have.
  • It is calculated by multiplying Probability and Risk Impact and converting that into a fraction for easy comparison.
  • Higher Risk Index = Higher priority risk.

Steps to Add and Manage Risks

To add new Risks:

  1. Click the ADD button on the Risk workitem listing page.
  2. Enter key details such as Name, Description, Priority, Probability (%), Risk Impact, Due Date, Risk Category, etc.
  3. Click the SAVE button to create the risk.

Once a Risk workitem gets created, then the following tabs are visible:

Common Operations to Manage Risks

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