A risk assessment matrix can help businesses cultivate a solid understanding of the risk environment, helping them manage risks before they occur. Now more than ever, companies must meet the challenges of the present — and the future — by identifying, analyzing, and mitigating risks quickly.

There are three reasons why a Risk Assessment Matrix is Important:-

To provide the basis for the assessment of Risks, a Risk Matrix is provided within Ansarada GRC.

The Risk Matrix is your assessment of the overall impact of a Risk based on the likelihood of an event occurring and the significance or consequence should that event occur. Ansarada GRC employs the commonly-used 5 x 5 matrix, providing for five (5) ratings each for Likelihood and Consequence.

Please note: This section shows the customisable titles and fields in (brackets). Where you see a title or field value in brackets, be aware that your Ansarada GRC system may show a different title or value, depending on your system’s configuration.

Note:
This section shows the customisable titles and fields in (brackets). Where you see a title or field value in brackets, be aware that your Ansarada GRC system may show a different title or value, depending on your system’s configuration.

To provide the basis for assessment of Risks, a Risk Matrix is provided within Ansarada GRC.

The Risk Matrix is your assessment of the overall impact of a Risk based on the likelihood of an event occurring and the significance or consequence should that event occur. Ansarada GRC employs the commonly-used 5 x 5 matrix, providing for five (5) ratings each for Likelihood and Consequence.

The default Likelihood ratings range from ‘Rare’ to ‘Almost Certain’, while the default Consequence ratings range from ‘Insignificant’ to ‘Extreme’.

These titles can be modified to suit your organisation (see Edit Risk Likelihood Definitions and Edit Risk Consequences Definitions).

Creation of the Risk Matrix requires an assessment of the various combinations of Risk options and an allocation of the Ratings to each segment. There are no specific definitions for the Risk combinations—you can set these to suit your organisation. However, an example of commonly used titles and definitions is shown in the Risk matrix screen below.

Set up your Risk Matrix from the Main Menu: Select Risk | Matrix.

The ‘Risk Matrix’ Page loads.

The ‘Risk Matrix’ Page

You can apply terminology and colour schemes to suit your organisation via the ‘Display Name & Colour Settings’ tab.

You can create five (5) different display name and colour settings to represent the various Risk combinations in the Risk Matrix. See Edit Risk Matrix Display Names and Colours.

The Risk Matrix ‘Display Names & Colour Settings’ tab

Having created your Risk Matrix, the final step is to allocate a score to each combination of Consequence and Likelihood.

See Risk Score Calculation in the Glossary for more information.

Note:

Depending on your Risk Configuration settings, Risk Scoring options may be disabled and therefore ‘Manage Risk Score Calculation’ may not be available on the ‘Maintenance’ menu.

You can test the Risk Score outcome using the ‘Test Calculation’ feature. See Perform a Risk Score Test Calculation.

See Risk Score Bands in the Glossary. See 3, 4 or 5 Risk Score Bands. See Set the Risk Score Bands.

The Risk Status is a user-defined field on the Risk Assessment page that allows you to provide your own description to the status of a Risk.

‘Status’ field in the Risk Assessment Page

The inclusion of a Risk Status allows you to quickly highlight the trend of the Risk for reporting and discussion purposes.