This guide walks through how changes to the risk matrix affect its functionality and how to build a three-step risk assessment in Impact.
When your company assesses risks using the matrix component, there will usually come a point where you want to update the risk matrix. For example, in the past you have used a 3x3 risk matrix, and now you want to start using a 5x5 risk matrix. In the case of this change, you should note that the risks assessed with the 3x3 matrix are no longer comparable with the risks assessed with the 5x5 matrix.
For this reason, when the risk matrix size is changed, the following warnings are shown:
- After this change the ability to compare the data changes.
- I understand, that changing the matrix size or the name, causes that the data created before the change cannot shown in the same charts with the data after the change in the analytics.
For example, if in analytics you look at the risk assessments of the whole company over several years and the risk matrix size has changed over the last year, each risk matrix of different size is shown as a separate graph.
Editing the name of the risk matrix will cause the same situation. The cells of the risk matrix and their descriptions can be freely edited if the size of the risk matrix is not changed. It is important to note that a radical change of descriptions or names may affect the user's evaluation when filling in the tool, so that the data filled in the risk matrix will not be comparable before and after the change. For example, if the description is changed from low to very low, this will affect the user's evaluation of the risk level on which they select when completing the tool.
Three-step risk assessment
If a company is using a three-tier risk assessment, the risk matrix components should be created as described below. In this case, the risk matrix descriptors linked to the risk assessment in the analytics are drawn in the correct order; from left to right Risk -> Estimated Residual Risk -> Actual Residual Risk.
Older risk assessment components
The older risk assessment components Matrix Selection and Matrix Selection by Multiplication can still be used in existing risk assessment templates. Only the new risk matrix components will be available for new templates to be built.