---
title: Identify risks and plan responses
acode: A06
principles:
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---

Conduct workshops with key team members to first identify risks, and then to plan responses to them. Store the information in the **Follow‑Up Register**. 

Based on the identified risks and planned responses, you may need to adjust the **Project Description** and the **Deliverables Map** as well. 

If a similar project has been done before, check its archive to learn more about the risks related to your project. 

[Follow-Up Register template](/en/modules/p3.express/manual/v2/follow-up-register.ods)

[Project Description template](/en/modules/p3.express/manual/v2/project-description.odt)


## Purpose 

The main reason for identifying risks is to plan responses to them proactively, because it's much easier and cheaper to control risks before they materialize rather than after. 


## Common pitfalls 

The following helps you avoid some of the commonest pitfalls in risk management:

* Don't record general, unclear items as risks.
* Don't record general, unclear items as risk responses -- only design actionable responses that can be implemented and evaluated. 
* Don't record the potential impacts of uncertain events as risks -- it's the uncertain events themselves that we need to evaluate, and those are what we call risks. 
* Assign a custodian to be responsible for the follow-up actions of each risk. It's best to spread this responsibility among many team members rather than just a few of them.


