Enhanced Risk Management SpiraApp Released

26-Aug-2024 by Adam Sandman Product News

One of the most important parts of managing complex software projects is understanding the risks associated with the project and managing them appropriately. SpiraPlan includes a built-in risk management module that lets you create risks, analyze them, assign a probability and impact, and propose mitigations and tasks that reduce the likilihood of the risk materializing. However, what happens if the risk does happen? We now have a new SpiraApp that lets you streamline the process of turning a materialized risk into an issue.

What Happens When a Risk Materializes?

One of the key differences between a risk and an issue is that a risk is a potential future hazard, whereas an issue is something that has already happened. The risk management module of SpiraPlan is very good at letting you create and manage the risks in your project, however if that risk actually occurs, we need a way to turn that risk into an issue.

The new Risks+ SpiraApp includes this amazing time saving functionality, as well as an option that lets you restrict the review date of a risk to be before its closed date.

Converting a Risk to an Issue Automatically

With this new SpiraApp, when you click on an existing Risk, you have the new option to Move to Incident. Clicking on this option will automatically create a new issue in the same product:

Risk screen with option to move to incident

In addition, to save time, the SpiraApp will also automatically change the status of the risk to the appropriate closed status that is used when a risk has occurred:

Risk after it has been converted to an issue

The new issue will be created in the same product automatically, and will inherit the name, description, release, owner, detector, and component from the risk:

Issue inside Spira converted from a risk

This new issue can then be managed and triaged as part of your standard issue management workflow. The previous risk is now archived and no longer needs to be actively managed. However, to ensure traceability and auditability, there is an associated automatically created between the new issue and the existing risk:

Association between issue and risk

Configuring the Functionality

Once the new SpiraApp has been uploaded and activated, the only setting that needs to be configured is to specify the appropriate risk status that the risk will be switched to upon creation of the new issue:

Admin screen to configure the SpiraApp.

We would recommend using a closed status such as "Closed" or creating a new status as "Materialized" if that makes more sense.

On this page you can also enable the additional risk management functionality that validates the risk review date.

Further Reading