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When is a risk considered as closed?

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Ibrahim Khan Business Applications Manager| University of Doha for Science and Technology Doha, Qatar
When a risk is noted in the risk register with a mitigation plan and response, but the risk has not yet occurred, can we consider the risk as closed? Or, does the risk get closed when it has already occurred and the risk response has been executed?
In other words, can a risk be kept open and monitored until it has occurred or there are no more chances that it will occur?
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Thomas Walenta Global Project Economy Expert Hackenheim, Germany
Ibrahim, yes.
You can close the risk of loosing in gambling if you never go to casino.
Once you chose the strategy for a risk, it still has to be monitored, as probability or impact might change and you might want to change the strategy.

Thomas
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1 reply by Ibrahim Khan
Feb 17, 2021 10:10 AM
Ibrahim Khan
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In that case there could be too many risks open during the course of the project, if they have not yet occured.

This is causing the management/sponsor to worry seeing too many open risks.
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Ibrahim Khan Business Applications Manager| University of Doha for Science and Technology Doha, Qatar
Feb 17, 2021 10:04 AM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
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Ibrahim, yes.
You can close the risk of loosing in gambling if you never go to casino.
Once you chose the strategy for a risk, it still has to be monitored, as probability or impact might change and you might want to change the strategy.

Thomas
In that case there could be too many risks open during the course of the project, if they have not yet occured.

This is causing the management/sponsor to worry seeing too many open risks.
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Ibrahim

The risk register is a living document where you keep monitoring risks, recalculating their probability vs impact, adding new risks and so on. During your assessment, if the probability of a risk occurring becomes zero, then you close off this risk but if the probability becomes lower but still there, you put it on a watch list, and so on.

Hope this helps.

RK
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
An identified risk should only be closed if there is certainty that its probability of occurrence is 0. Even if a risk is realized, unless there is no likelihood of it being realized again, we should keep it open.

Kiron
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Peter Rapin Subject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent Consultant Ontario, Canada
Once identified risk are categorized/classified or prioritized based on the consideration of probability and impact - usually referred to as 'exposure'. High exposure, high priority, etc. I don't like to think in terms of zero exposue as there are no absolutes in the risk world.

Many risk exposures change as the project evolves, some get greater - some less. When there is significant change one should revisit the analysis and consider adjusting the mitigation measures and even risk allowance to reflect the true exposure. Someimes the probanility changes, sometimes the impact - only re-analysis will provide the correct response.

Even when risk exposure is in the tolerable range it should not be eliminated from the risk register - it may change again.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
I am in line with @Kiron. When you record a risk you have to stated dates. The date will give you the opportunity to decide if a risk has to be closed or not. Because of that, to have all risk closed is a must to close a project/program.
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Thomas Walenta Global Project Economy Expert Hackenheim, Germany
Hi Sergio

agree with the closing when probability is 0 and cannot change.

Regarding closing all risks at project end, I do not think so. Have seen risks being carried over to operations. They are no longer project risks literally, but may have the same impact on the product and probability.
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Aaron Porter
Community Champion
IT Director| Blade HQ Payson, UT, United States
What is your risk response and when is it executed? Take the four risk response strategies into consideration. If your response is to accept the risk and wait until the risk becomes an issue and then address it, you close it when the issue is resolved.

I'm not going to go through all four strategies, but I generally close a risk when there is zero probability of it happening, whether due to direct action being taken or other circumstances, or the impact is so low that we wouldn't even need to blink if the risk was realized. The latter may also be due to direct action - sometimes you can only reduce, not eliminate, probability and impact.
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Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani Manager, Quality and Continuous Improvement| Hörmann-TNR Industrial Doors Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
When the possibility of the risk is 0.
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Deborah Fair Principal| Forestt-Watters, LLC Lansing, Mi, United States
Question.. Once a risk is realized and becomes an Issue, do you keep the risk open as well as the Issue? Does the risk status change to something other than Open?
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