A brief guide
Practical Project Risk Management
SERIES ARTICLE
By Martin Hopkinson
United Kingdom
Purpose
- Identify a common trap that projects fall into when using a commercial risk register tool.
- Identify how the use of tools can be tailored to avoid this trap.
The Trap
Commercial risk register tools have been developed to respond to a spectrum of customer demands for functionality. As a result, many support a very large number of data fields – usually more than listed in the examples below. The trap lies in the temptation to use most or all of these fields in an effort to achieve data completeness. In practice, however, the resultant data volume can become impracticable to maintain and update, leading to the data becoming outdated and/or inaccurate. It can also alienate project team members and dilute data quality.
Typically, Available Risk Description and Analysis Data Capture Fields
More…
To read entire article, click here
Editor’s note: This series of articles is by Martin Hopkinson, author of the books “The Project Risk Maturity Model” and “Net Present Value and Risk Modelling for Projects” and contributing author for Association for Project Management (APM) guides such as Directing Change and Sponsoring Change. These articles are based on a set of short risk management guides previously available on his company website, now retired. For an Introduction and context for this series, click here. Learn more about Martin Hopkinson in his author profile below.
How to cite this paper: Hopkinson, M. (2025). The Risk Register Detail Trap: A brief guide, Practical Project Risk Management series, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue V, May. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pmwj152-May2025-Hopkinson-Risk-Register-Detail-Trap.pdf
About the Author
Martin Hopkinson
United Kingdom
Martin Hopkinson, recently retired as the Director of Risk Management Capability Limited in the UK and has 30 years’ experience as a project manager and project risk management consultant. His experience has been gained across a wide variety of industries and engineering disciplines and includes multibillion-pound projects and programmes. He was the lead author on Tools and Techniques for the Association for Project Management’s (APM) guide to risk management (The PRAM Guide) and led the group that produced the APM guide Prioritising Project Risks.
Martin’s first book, The Project Risk Maturity Model, concerns the risk management process. His contributions to Association for Project Management (APM) guides such as Directing Change and Sponsoring Change reflect his belief in the importance of project governance and business case development.
In his second book Net Present Value and Risk Modelling for Projects he brought these subjects together by showing how NPV and risk modelling techniques can be used to optimise projects and support project approval decisions. (To learn more about the book, click here.)
To view other works by Martin Hopkinson, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/martin-hopkinson/
