Risk Register Template for Excel
Why You Need a Risk Tracking Template
Every project has risk. If you’re don’t think so, then you’re fooling yourself and are in for a nasty surprise. The sharp project manager is going to understand that while risk is inevitable, the ability to forecast it and prepare a strategy to correct whatever wrongs may occur during the project is part of what planning for a project is.
But it’s not enough to simply do the due diligence and prepare, you have to be prepared to deal with that risk, whatever it may be, when it occurs. One thing that is crucial is to have a mechanism in place to track risk throughout your project’s lifecycle. If you at first don’t identify it, that’s a problem, but once you see it, if you don’t track it, well, that’s a tragedy.
Therefore, you need to systematically track and evaluate the performance of the actions you take to mitigate risk against established metrics throughout the acquisition process while developing other options. This is where a risk tracking template comes in handy. It provides you with all the places to collect the needed data to follow that risk and see how your actions to remedy it are working.
With our free Excel template, you can download and create a vital document in your project management arsenal. It has everything you need in one place, and we offer it to you free because as a project management software company, we understand that a project is only as good as the tools you have at hand to complete it successfully, on time and within your allotted budget.
Here you’ll be able to identify the risk, note where it might start to impact the project and even tag the person who identified it. There’s also space for you to determine how likely the risk will, in fact, impact the project, estimate that risk and then better identify it if and when it occurs.
Other things a risk tracking template helps with are providing a space to fully describe the risk and how it might impact the project, as well as assigning an owner to that risk. This is the person who is responsible for monitoring the risk and implementing action to mitigate it. That way the risk is less likely to be ignored, instead of everyone thinking everyone else is taking care of it.
You also have a way to say when the risk is no longer a risk, that is you can close it. Once the risk is not impacting the project and has been taken care of, you don’t want to waste valuable resources tracking it. Here is where you can also describe the reason for closing the risk, which is a great way to communicate with your team and stakeholders.
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