August 20th, 2019 by Adam Sandman
As we get ready for the release of SpiraPlan 6.2 later this month, we'd like too introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. In the third installment of this series, we're excited to announce some key enhancements to the risk management module in SpiraPlan. This new functionality extends the power of the risk management features and also better integrates them into the rest of the SpiraPlan platform.
Risk Management in SpiraPlan 61.
In the current version of SpiraPlan, you can create risks in the risk management module, you identify, analyze, and treat them through the risk management workflow. You can assign mitigations and create an action plan based on specific tasks that are assigned to members of the team to carry out.
However, one of the features that we had planned, that did not make it into the initial version of risk management was the ability to associate the risks with other artifacts in SpiraPlan, especially requirements, which is a very common use case. For example, you have a new feature that you plan on implementing, and you need a way to capture and track all the risks associated with it.
Risk Management Associations
The new 6.2 release of SpiraPlan adds a new tab to the risk pages - Associations - this lets you link risks to other artifacts in the system. Each association will contain the type of artifact being linked to, whether it is dependency, or simple relationship association, the date it was created, who made the association, and whether it is a cross-product association or not.
Risks Associated with Requirements
This association lets you document and track all of the risks associated with a specific feature or requirement in SpiraPlan. For example, a new authentication module might have security risks associated with it, or a new reporting feature might have technical risks associated with it. This is one of the most important associations you can create in SpiraPlan, since it lets you document the risks associated with changes you plan on making.
Risks Associated with Test Cases
This association lets you link a risk to a test case. This may be used when one of the outcomes of the risk analysis and treatment is the need to perform tests to determine the probability or impact. For example, a risk around system performance might be linked to series of performance, load and stress tests that you need to carry out to understand how serious the risk is.
Risks Associated with Incidents
The association with incidents can be used for two main purposes:
- Convert to Issue - Firstly you may have an identified risk that comes to pass and is now actually an issue rather than a risk. In this case you will close the risk and convert it to an issue, which will remain linked to the original risk.
- Risk Associated with Change - whenever you make a change to the system, from a bug being fixed, enhancement being implement or change request being acted upon, you will have a risk of side effects. In this case, you will want to link the risk to the incident.
Risks Associated with Other Risks
Finally, one other benefit of the new functionality is that you can associate risks with each other. This can be used for cases where one risk is dependent on another (if this happens, then that could also happen) or if they are just connected (this technical risk is similar to this other technical risk). The new association panel lets you document such relationships.
How Do I Get The New Functionality?
For SpiraPlan customers, all you need to do is upgrade to v6.2 to get the new functionality. It will be available for cloud customers at the end of August and available for download customers around the same time.
If you have SpiraTest or SpiraTeam, you will need to upgrade to SpiraPlan to get the new functionality.