Risks & issues

Two of the project’s registers deal with things that can go wrong: the risk register and the issue register. Entries appear here as communications from your connected sources are classified — and you can also seed an existing log yourself with the Import button (see below).

Risk vs issue

If you’re not a project manager, the distinction is simple:

• A risk is something that might happen and would hurt the project if it did. It hasn’t happened yet.
• An issue is something that has happened (or is happening now) and needs dealing with.

A risk that comes true often becomes an issue.

The risk register

Each risk row shows its category, a P×I score (probability × impact — how likely it is, times how bad it would be, each rated 1–5), a status, and when it was created.

Status	Meaning
open	Live and unaddressed.
mitigated	Action has been taken to reduce it.
realised	It happened.
closed	No longer a concern.

The issue register

Each issue row shows a severity (low, medium, high, or critical), a status, and when it was raised.

Status	Meaning
open	Raised, not yet being worked.
in progress	Being worked on.
resolved	Fixed.
closed	Done with.

Note

The words “risk” and “issue” may read differently in your project — the labels follow the project’s chosen methodology. An Agile project, for example, calls an issue an Impediment.

Current vs all, and archived

By default each register shows the current view: the live head of each entry’s thread, with superseded versions and duplicates grouped underneath. Expand a row (click it) to see that entry’s history.

Switch to All to list every version. In the All view a Show archived checkbox appears, which brings back entries that have been put aside. Archived entries carry an Archived badge; ones archived as old imported history show a Retired badge instead (see Glossary).

Relation badges

Rows can carry small badges — prior, duplicate, contradicts, related — showing how an entry connects to others. A row may also be tagged duplicate or superseded. Expanding the row lists those links in full, including any reasoning behind them. See the Glossary for what each relation means.

Importing existing entries

Already have a risk or issue log? Use the Import button to bring it in. Paste a table or upload a .csv / .md file (first row = column headers), map the columns to fields, preview, then commit. See Import your data for the full walkthrough.