M_o_R Glossary Flashcards
A risk response that means that the organisation takes the chance that the risk will occur, with full impact on objectives if it does.
Accept
A public sector role. Has personal responsibility for:
- the proprietary and regularity of the finances for which he or she is answerable;
- for keeping of proper accounts;
- for prudent and economical administration;
- for avoidance of waste and extravagance; and
- for the efficient and effective use of resources.
This brings with it a responsibility for governance issues, and includes custodianship of risk management and its adoption throughout the organisation.
Accounting officer
A body of independent directors who are responsible for:
- monitoring the integrity of the financial statement of the company;
- the effectiveness of the company’s internal audit function;
- the external auditor’s independence and objectivity; and
- the effectiveness of the audit process.
Audit committee
A risk response that seeks to eliminate a threat by making the situation certain.
Avoid
The measurable improvement resulting from an outcome perceived as an advantage by one or more stakeholders.
Benefits.
The justification for an organisational activity (strategic, programme, project or operational) which typically contains costs, benefits, risks and timescales against which continuing viability is tested.
Business case
The role responsible for benefits management, from identification through to realisation and ensuring the implementation and embedding of the new capabilities delivered by the projects. Typically allocated to more than one individual.
Business change manager
Alternate title: Change agent
A holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience with the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities. The management of recovery or continuity in the event of a disaster. Also the management of the overall process through training, rehearsals and reviews, to ensure the business continuity plan stays current and up to date.
Business continuity management
A plan for the fast and efficient resumption of essential business operations by directing recovery actions of specified recovery teams.
Business continuity plan
Failure to achieve business objectives / benefits.
Business risk
A plan of the communications activities during the organisational activity (strategic, programme, project or operational) that will be established and maintained. Typically contains when, what, how and with whom information flows.
Communications plan
The process of identifying and planning appropriate responses to be taken when a risk actually occurs.
Contingency planning
Plan intended for us, only if required, e.g. if a risk response is not successful.
Often called fallback plans.
Contingent / contingency plan
The ongoing activity of maintaining a sound system of internal control by which the directors and officers of an organisation ensure that effective management systems, including financial monitoring and control systems, have been put in place to protect assets, earnings capacity and the reputation of the organisation.
Corporate governance
A series of processes that focus on recovery processes, principally in response to physical disasters. This activity forms part of business continuity planning, not the totality.
Disaster recovery planning
Outcomes perceived as negative by one or more stakeholders. These are actual consequences of an activity whereas, by definition, a risk has some uncertainty about whether it will materialise.
Dis-benefit
A leading indicator for an organisational objective measured ultimately by a key performance indicator (KPI).
Early warning indicator (EWI)
A risk response for an opportunity that seeks to increase the probability and / or impact to make it more certain.
Enhance
This is calculated by multiplying the estimated average impact by the estimated probability percentage.
Expected value
Also known as expected monetary value where the estiated average impact is a cost
A risk response for an opportunity that seeks to make the uncertain situation certain.
Exploit
Plan intended for us, only if required, e.g. if a risk response is not successful.
Often called contingent plans.
Fallback plan
Independent assurance reviews that occur at key decision points within the lifecycle of a programme or project.
Gateway reviews
The systematic examination of potential threats, opportunities, and likely future developments which are at the margins of current thinking and planning.
Horizon scanning
The result of a particular threat or opportunity actually occurring.
Impact
The exposure arising from a specific risk before any action has been taken to manage it.
Inherent risk
A relevant event that has happened, was not planned and requires management action. It could be a problem, benefit, query, concern, change request, or risk that has occurred.
Issue
A role or individual responsible for the management and control of all aspects of individual issues, including the implementation of the measures taken in respect of each issue.
Issue actionee
A measure of performance that is used to help an organisation define and evaluate how successful it is in making progress towards its organisational objectives.
Key performance indicator (KPI)
Systematic application of policies, procedures, methods, and practices to the tasks of identifying and assessing risks, and then planning and implementing risk responses. This provides a disciplined environment for proactive decision-making.
Management of risk
A well-defined evolutionary plateau towards achieving a mature process (five levels are often cited: initial, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimising)
Maturity level
Independent assurance reviews of major (High-risk) projects in the UK government. They are mandatory and occur at key decision points within the lifecycle of a project. See www.ogc.gov.uk for details.
OGC Gateway Reviews (TM)
Failure to achieve business / organisational objectives due to human error, system failures and / or inadequate procedure and controls.
Operational risk
An uncertain event that would have a favourable impact on objectives or benefits if it occurred.
Opportunity
The result of change, normally affecting real-world behaviour or circumstances. Desired when a change is conceived. Achieved as a result of the activities undertaken to effect the change.
Outcome
The tangible or intangible artefact produced, constructed or created as a result of a planned activity.
Output
This is the evaluated likelihood of a particular threat or opportunity actually happening, including a consideration of the frequency with which this may arise.
Probability
An input or output, whether tangible or intangible, that can be described in advance, created and tested.
Also known as an output or deliverable.
Product
A temporary, flexible organisation structure created to coordinate, direct and oversee the implementation of a set of related projects and activities in order to deliver outcomes and benefits related to the organisation’s strategic objectives. A programme is likely to have a life span that spans several years.
Programme
Risk concerned with transforming high-level strategy into new ways of working to deliver benefits to the organisation.
Programme risk
A temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case.
Project
Risk concerned with the successful completion of a project. Typically these risks include personal, technical, cost, schedule, resource, operational support, quality and supplier issues.
Project risk
The time factor of risk, i.e. the occurrence of risks will be due at particular times, and the severity of their impact will vary depending on when they occur.
Proximity (of risk)
Assurance that products will be fit for purpose or meet requirements.
Quality assurance
A risk response for a threat that seeks to reduce probability and / or impact.
Reduce
The risk remaining after the risk response has been successfully applied.
Residual risk
An uncertain event or set of events that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of objectives.
Measured by a combination of the probability of a perceived threat or opportunity occurring and the magnitude of its impact on objectives.
Risk
Some actions may not be within the remit of the risk owner to control explicitly; in the situation there should be a nominated owner of the action to address the risk. He or she will need to keep the risk owner apprised of the situation.
Risk actionee
The amount of risk the organisation, or subset of it, is willing to accept.
Risk appetite
The maximum amount of risk that an organisation, or subset of it, can bear, linked to factors such as its reputation, capital, assets and liability to raise additional funds.
Risk capacity
A description of the source of the risk, i.e. the event or situation that gives rise to risk.
Risk cause
A body of independent directors who are responsible for reviewing the company’s internal control and risk management systems.
Risk committee
A description of the impact that the risk would have on the organisational activity should the risk materialise.
Risk effect
The estimation of the probability and impact of an individual risk, taking into account predetermined standards, target risk levels, interdependencies and other relevant factors.
Risk estimation
The process of understanding the net effect of the identified threats and opportunities on an activity when aggregated together.
Risk evaluation
A description of the area of uncertainty in terms of the threat or the opportunity.
Risk event
The extent of risk borne by the organisation at that time.
Risk exposure
Determination of what could pose a risk; a process to describe and list sources of risk (threats and opportunities).
Risk identification
A record of all identified risks relating to an initiative, including their status and history.
Risk log (also called a risk register)
Systematic application of principles, approach and processes to the tasks of identifying and assessing risks, and then planning and implementing risk responses.
Risk management
A high-level statement showing how risk management will be handled throughout the organisation.
Risk management policy
Describes the series of steps (from identify through to implement) and their respective associated activities, necessary to implement risk management.
Risk management process guide
Describes:
- The goals of applying risk management to the activity;
- The process that will be adopted;
- The roles and responsibilities;
- The risk thresholds;
- The timing of risk management interventions
- The deliverables;
- The tools and techniques that will be used; and
- The reporting requirements.
It may also describe how the process will be coordinated with other management activities.
Risk management strategy
A role or individual responsible for the implementation of risk management for each activity at each of the organisational levels.
Risk manager
A role or individual responsible for the management and control of all aspects of individual risks, including the implementation of the measures taken in respect of each risk.
Risk owner
The way in which a stakeholder views a risk, based on a set of values or concerns.
Risk perception
A standard set of high-level criteria against which the intrinsic characteristics and degree of difficulty of a proposed project are assessed. Used in the UK public sector to assess the criticality of projects and so determine the level of OGC Gateway Review required.
Risk potential assessment
Describes the type of risk faced by an organisation and its exposure to those risks.
Risk profile
A record of all identified risks relating to an initiative, including their status and history.
Risk register (also called a risk log)
Actions that may be taken to bring the situation to a level where the exposure to risk is acceptable to the organisation. These responses fall into one of a number of risk response options.
Risk response
The threshold levels of risk exposure that, with appropriate approvals, can be exceeded, but which when exceeded will trigger some form of response (e.g. reporting the situation to senior management for action).
Risk tolerance
A line drawn on the summary risk profile. Risks that appear above this line cannot be accepted (lived with) without referring them to a higher authority. For a project, the project manager would refer these risks to the senior responsible owner.
Risk tolerance line
The single individual with overall responsibility for ensuring that a project or programme meets its objectives and delivers the projected benefits.
Senior responsible owner
The degree to which the risk could affect the situation.
Severity of risk
A risk response. Modern procurement methods commonly entail a form of risk-sharing through the application of a pain / gain formula:
- both parties share the gain (within pre-agreed limits) if the cost is less than the cost plan; and
- both parties share the pain (again within pre-agreed limits) if the cost plan is exceeded.
Share
The main driving force behind a programme or project.
Sponsor
The main driving force behind a programme providing investment decisions and top-level endorsement of the rationale and objectives of the programme.
Sponsoring group
Any individual, group or organisation that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by, an initiative (programme, project, activity or risk).
Stakeholder
A diagrammatic representation of the stakeholders relevant to an organisational activity and their respective interests.
Stakeholder map
A narrative statement by the board of directors of a company, disclosing that there is an ongoing process for the identification and management of significant risks faced by the company.
Statement of internal control
Risk concerned with where the organisation wants to go, how it plans to get there, and how it can ensure survivial.
Strategic risk
A simple mechanism to increase the visibility of risks. It is a graphical representation of information normally found on an existing risk register.
Summary risk profile
An uncertain event that could have a negative impact on objectives or benefits.
Threat
A risk response whereby a third party takes on responsibility for an aspect of the risk.
Transfer
The set of information relevant to the creation of one or more products. It will contain a description of the work, the product description(s), details of any constraints on production, and confirmation of the agreement between the project manager who is to implement the work package that the work can be done within the constraints.
Work package
