RAID Log

RAID stands for Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies. A risk is an uncertain event that could affect objectives. An assumption is something treated as true for planning. An issue is a problem that has already happened. A dependency is something one team or project needs from another. Keeping them together makes it easier to see how they connect. An unconfirmed assumption can become a risk; a risk that occurs becomes an issue; a missed dependency can cause both. Each entry should have an owner, a status and a next action. Example: A software project logs: Risk, the supplier may deliver the integration late; Assumption, the test environment will be ready by March; Issue, one tester is unavailable this month; Dependency, the data migration team must deliver mapped data before testing starts. Reviewing them together shows that the late-integration risk and the migration dependency affect the same milestone. A RAID log is simple, but only useful if reviewed regularly and owned by named people. Logs that nobody reads give false comfort.