ANSWER

Business Analysts often pull double-duty as project managers.  As a project progresses, risks, issues, and other events come up that impact the project. A RAID log is an effective tool for tracking items, and it provides people with a consistent place to look for answers.

The acronym RAID stands for risks, actions, issues, and decisions. There are variances on the RAID log such as IRAD, IRAAD, and RAAIDD depending on what the document tracks. There is no distinct format for these documents; several templates can be found online. You can select the format that works best for your project.

These are the elements that can be included in your log:

Risk = Something that might occur that could impact project completion. Examples: A key contributor might be going out on leave for a period of time, impacted teams may not be willing to participate in the project, delivery of hardware may be delayed.

Assumption = A piece of information assumed to be true based on given data that is expected to hold true throughout the project. Examples: All users will have the same software version, all users will have network connectivity, data will be provided by all teams by the due date.

Action = The next step required and the owner of that action. Examples: John will check on the status of the new hardware, Tina will find another developer to fill in, Jamie will find a representative of the sales team to join weekly status calls.

Issue = Something that did occur that could impact the project complete date. Examples: Delivery of hardware was incorrect, code did not pass QA by the due date, access to a building was denied.

Dependency = A required item for the project to proceed as planned. This could be a deliverable or a resource or any item needed by the team. Examples: Documentation cannot be completed until functionality is determined, data must be analyzed before a recommendation can be made, phase one must be completed before phase two can start.

Decision = A record of any decisions made through the project, why the decision was made, and the date it was made. Examples: Feature 1 will be available on a computer but not a phone because of compatibility issues, version 1.2 of the required software will be used because it is the most stable, the assurance team will be responsible for maintenance of the released product because it falls in line with the team responsibilities.

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Shawna Burkey
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