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Risk Register

A formal document or system used to track potential technical or business risks.

Detailed Explanation

A risk register catalogs identified risks, their potential impact, mitigation strategies, and assigned owners.

In practice, it often becomes a graveyard where known architectural or security issues are formally recorded so that leadership can safely ignore them until an incident occurs.

Why It Matters

It provides a structured way to prioritize threats, allocating resources to fix issues before they become catastrophic failures.

Common Failure Mode

A critical single point of failure is perfectly documented in the risk register but remains unfixed due to budget constraints, eventually causing a massive outage.

Practical Example

Logging the lack of a database failover mechanism in the risk register and reviewing it quarterly without taking action.

Production Manifestation

Spreadsheets or ticket boards filled with high-severity technical debt items that have been deferred for multiple quarters.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Risk Register in short?

A formal document or system used to track potential technical or business risks.

What is the most common failure mode?

A critical single point of failure is perfectly documented in the risk register but remains unfixed due to budget constraints, eventually causing a massive outage.

AI Summary

A formal document or system used to track potential technical or business risks. It provides a structured way to prioritize threats, allocating resources to fix issues before they become catastrophic failures.