Why is an understanding of risk causes important?
Risks don’t occur spontaneously. Certain conditions cause a risk to happen. Understanding their causes enables a project team to influence risks before they occur. This can change the likelihood of occurrence and the possible effects on your project.
A risk may have one or several causes, however a team may describe a risk in terms of a single cause, and be taken by surprise if the risk occurs due to another risk. Describing a risk in positive words without naming a cause prevents this. Consideration should also be given to the idea that one cause could initiate a number of risks. For example, a fire could set a chain of reactions in motion leading to the occurrence of dozens of risks.
Analyses
Cause analysis could be both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative analyses aims to describe what could happen once a risk occurs. Quantitative causes are expressed in numbers. The chance of occurrence can be quantified indicating the importance of a cause.
