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10 Benefits of using a RAID log on your next Project

A Project is an outcome of some activity, normally resulting in some form of benefit to a person or
organisation, that has a defined start and finish. The Project could be also be constrained in terms of
budget and scope.
At the start of the Project, the Project Manager may identify some risks, maybe create a work
breakdown structure and finally develop the schedule. Whilst the Project Manager was traversing
this path, he would be making assumptions and with Project sponsors and stakeholders he would be
deciding on a large number of things. The information created during this process is often
documented in a number of places, and more often than not it is never reviewed or analysed due to
the difficulty of accessing the information. In this case an important Project resource is disregarded,
the information buried amongst the Project documents and if correctly and intelligently managed can
help to ensure that the Project will succeed.
One solution that is widely used is the Project RAID log. The RAID log is the record of the Risks,
Assumptions, Issues, and Decisions that are encountered during a Projects lifecycle. The RAID log
can be a simple set of lists or as complex as an enterprise wide Project Information Management
system. The RAID log is normally created and used by the Project Manager and is often shared with
Project stakeholders and team members.
The RAID log is often seen as a way to tick a box to placate the organisations management. The
information held within the RAID log is not captured just for historical reasons, if managed, updated,
and analysed it can be used a tool to show Project progress or quickly check, through the use of RAG
status, Project health.
The 10 benefits listed below will hopefully show how the RAID log is such a useful tool.

Benefit 1: A RAID log will make you think about your project
How you think about your project is key to a successful outcome. You can look at the project
schedule as long as you want but youre sure to be missing some important issues. Whilst the project
schedule is extremely important, you have to look at the Project from various viewpoints and an up
to date RAID log provides a number of these viewpoints. As a busy Project Manager you probably
dont have the opportunity or luxury to set aside vast amounts time to do some quality thinking about
your project, however the RAID log provides a cost and time effective way to trigger your thought
processes.
When you decide to use a RAID log for your project in an effective manner, you are committing to a
regular activity of identification, update, analysis, and communication. This activity forces you, as
Project Manager, to think about your Project systematically and in detail.
What do you do with the analysed information in your RAID log, you communicate it! The RAID
log can be used as a tool to communicate with the rest of the project team and stakeholders; you are
presenting information that has backing evidence, a powerful position to be in. This communication
may lead your project team and stakeholders to actively think about the project.
Taking the time to think about your project is critical to project performance, it helps you to keep
control and understand the nuances of the project. It will help in your relationship with stakeholders,
giving them confidence that you have detailed knowledge and control over your project. Ensuring

that the project team and stakeholders have access to the RAID information will translate into good
quality decision making.

Benefit 2: A RAID log helps you to keep in control


Lets paint a picture. You are the project manager of one of your organisations most important
strategic projects, the stakeholders are some of the organisations most senior managers; life is
hectic, stressful, and it seems that everyone wants answers to the most obscure areas of the project.
The great news is that youve been maintaining a RAID log. Its been tough to spend time on it and
the project team dont always seem to understand why you require the detail but youve been doing it
for a while now and it is part of the projects culture.
You meet the CEO in the corridor and he asks you about some of the business risks that may impact
your project. Just that morning you were reviewing your RAID log so you can give him a detailed
answer right there. After the conversation you go back to your desk and send the CEO an email
describing the risks in question and provide a RAG status dashboard.
Whats happen here. The CEO has a concern regarding some risks, asked you for information which
you not only answered immediately but followed up an email probably before the CEO got back to
his desk. You are in control of your project and whats more the CEO knows it as well; a great win
for you.
You can see from this story that a regular and accurately maintained RAID log will contribute to
your control of the project, it is an important tool in your Project Managers toolbox. Whilst effort is
required to keep the RAID log current and relevant it will force you to pay attention to important
information and improve your control of your project. A secondary lesson from this story is that
project control is not all about reporting on schedule, there are other factors that contribute to project
control and ultimately may impact the project outcome.

Benefit 3: A RAID log enables you to identify and manage risks


Plan as much as you want there will always be risks to your project. You can mitigate the impact of
these risks by doing some deep thinking about them at the start of the project, analysing them and
developing some plan of action to either handle them when they happen, or proactively work to
eradicating them before they happen.
A risk event is more often than not bound to some time during the lifecycle of your project. The
RAID log will help you manage these risks and through the use of alerts and reports give you prior
warning of when a risk event will be triggered. This capability, if managed diligently, is critical to a
successful project delivery.
Maintaining the risk information in the RAID log regularly during the lifecycle of the project will
ensure that the Project Manager has the latest information with which to make decisions. The Project
Manager doesnt have to rely on a fallible memory, the information, the analysis, the mitigation
actions are all in one place and easily accessible.
An unmanaged risk is just as dangerous to your project as an undiscovered risk; especially if it is
triggered and impact your project. A risk that is regularly reviewed is in your mind and your planning

and scheduling will reflect this. The management of project risk is not an isolated activity during
project start but a systematic methodical process throughout the lifecycle of the project. The good
news is that in most cases the impact of the risks will reduce as the project nears its completion.

Benefit 4: A RAID log enables you to identify and manage issues


Issues can stop a project dead. Issues need to be managed and reviewed or your project will slowly,
or quickly depending on the nature of the issue, grind to a halt. An issue can be the result of a
triggered risk or of some unforeseen event, if the risk identification, review, and mitigation activities
have been completed satisfactory the amount of previously identified issues will be low.
A RAID log provides a structured and detailed way of recording and managing Issues. This is
important as you and your team members can discuss and review the issues in a structured process;
this process if completed on a regular basis will reduce the impact of the projects issues.
Many project managers manage the issues on an ad-hoc basis without documenting the issue in any
way, whilst this is sustainable on a very small project on a medium to large or complex project it can
prove difficult with the result of the project manager dropping and forgetting critical information.
Undocumented issues are difficult to analyse, prioritise, and manage, they may require further work
if they are to be escalated or presented to senior management. Undocumented issues are not easily
shared with team members or stakeholders and it is difficult to task and manage issue owners with
scraps of paper and ad-hoc emails.
Documented and up to date issue information can be easily presented or reported to senior
management. A consistent process for analysing, managing, reviewing, and presenting issue
information will lead senior management to draw positive conclusions about your management of
the project.

Benefit 5: A RAID log keep your decision making consistent


During the lifecycle of a project, there may be hundreds of decisions made. Most will be minuted in
meetings and workshops however many will be agreed or made in more informal settings. The
management of the projects decisions is important, mainly to limit disagreement or confusion
amongst stakeholder and team members but also so that you, as the project manager, knows what
path your project should take.
All Project decisions in the RAID log should have their reasons, causes, and sources, recorded as this
provides for the basis of a consistent process for decision making. Implementation of the process of
collating decisions from meeting minutes and other more informal sources, whilst time consuming,
will when all stakeholders and project team members have access to the RAID log prevent any
ambiguity or even conflict within the project.
A well communicated decision log means that all the stakeholders of the project will have the same
level of understanding. A well maintained log means that the project stakeholders will be confident
that the decision making process is focused and of good quality and that each decision has a recorded
provenance. The past history of a long project nearly always provides ammunition for conflict
between the stakeholders of the project, recording decisions in a systematic fashion in a well
communicated RAID log will go some way to prevent such conflict.

Benefit 6: A RAID log enables you to review assumptions you have made
All project managers, stakeholders, and team members make project related assumptions all the time;
very few are written down or recorded. These assumptions cover the breadth of project activity,
many of them are trivial however there are a number that are fundamental to an important activity;
an example is an assumption made in regards to work estimation that in turn supports the planning
and scheduling which is wrong, this could lead to a ill-conceived delivery date.
Recording assumptions made should be recorded in the RAID log, this means that any planning,
financial, or any other activity where assumptions have been made can be reviewed in light of future
events. A detailed recorded assumption enables Project members who need to know why a certain
path has been taken to understand the thinking of the recent past. The recording of assumptions is
fundamental to help resolving differences in opinions about strategy, tactics, and events between
stakeholders, and between tram members.
An assumption log, recorded correctly, will provide if needed a view for the lessons learned activity
at the end of the project. This is particularly important if the project failed in some way as the
assumptions made during the course of the project can be analysed and if found faulty improved
processes can be implemented for future projects.

Benefit 7: A RAID log can show Project status


A well maintained RAID log can be used to provide management information in a structured way
and show project status. The RAID log provides structured information that can be easily analysed
and enables alerts and warning to be raised. This can done in a variety of ways, however it is
dependent of the tools you are using to record the RAID information.
If you are using a spreadsheet with macros you can indicate the status of each of the RAID records
by using colour in the form of the RAG traffic light system. The RAG status of individual records
can be composed into a project or programme level report for presentation to senior managers. This
is one of the paybacks for regularly reviewing the records in your RAID log. If you have a dedicated
application that you use to manage the RAID log, you may find that it has the ability to create reports
that you can design so that your presentation to senior management is in line with organisational
reporting standards.
The use of tools, particularly online applications, means that you can have automated notification of
when RAID items have breached a preset value. An automated tool enables you to share the RAID
log with stakeholders and team members so that they can be up to date on the status, you can also
give them the ability, if so required, to edit and comment on any RAID records. A further advantage
of an automated RAID log is that you can integrate it with other Project Management Systems; you
enter the information once and transfer it to systems and people throughout the organisation.

Benefit 8: A RAID log helps you to understand what will happen in the future
A risk will have a period of time when is could be activated or trigger, in other words there is
window of risk activation. A risk trigger or activation date may highlight a time period or phase
within the Project when it is most likely to trigger and cause an impact to the Project. This is useful

information to know as you may be required to develop specific mitigation plans that are executed
within the risk activation window. Analysis of the risk trigger dates or activation window can give
you a future forecast of the riskiest phases of the project.
The analysis of the trigger date with the impact and probability of the occurrence of the project risks
can highlight the areas of the project that are the most riskiest and would benefit from focussed
attention. Analysis of past and current Issues in the RAID log can provide an indication of problem
areas that may have not been previously identified.

Benefit 9: A RAID log provides a foundation for Project schedules and plans
Nearly all project schedules are aspirational. The project manager or the project team normally
cannot not give a 100% guarantee that a schedule will run accurately and achieve its outcomes as
planned. What normally occurs is that the schedule is modified during the lifecycle of the project due
to issues that arise. This is not a bad thing, these issues if identified and handled early can be of
benefit. So, whilst a schedule is an estimate or pan of how the project will be delivered, there is a
likelihood that the schedule will need changing or if strictly adhered too will produce project failure.
How do we reduce the likelihood of schedule failure. Firstly, accept the schedule will need
modifying and secondly, identify the as many schedule risks that you can. A good plan or schedule
that has a probability of success will will take risk mitigation into account. The robust identification
of the Project Risks should underpin the creation of a schedule or plan.
We are now comfortable with the notion that the schedule will change, what we are trying to achieve
by spending time on accurately assessing the schedule risks is that this change to the schedule will
not impact on any deadlines or scheduled deliverables. However when change is required it is often
useful to understand the assumptions and decisions underpinning the planning of the schedule. If
these planning assumptions and decisions are recored in a RAID log, then the reschedule activity can
be completed accurately and quickly.

Benefit 10: A RAID log helps you to sleep at night


Keeping a project diary is a useful activity. The RAID log can be viewed as a type of project diary;
by using it the Project Manager can transfer important items out of his mind and put them into the
RAID log. This is an important principle which is the foundation for productivity processes such as
David Allens Getting Things Done or GTD. The principle is that by getting as much as you can out
of your brain and onto paper or into an electronic tool, your mind can focus on thinking about
important subjects rather than worrying about issues.
The capture and analysis of the items recording in RAID log means that you are not attempting to
remember all the things about your project all of the time. Essentially, if you think of a risk, issue, or
assumption get it out of your mind immediately by recording it in the RAID log. You now have it in
a repository for later analysis, so you dont have to worry about it; you review process will pick it up
at another time and you can analyse and reflect on it then.
Utilising a RAID log, keeping the items up to date, and regularly reviewing the log enables the
Project Manager to be in control of the Project, this in turn will ensure you a good nights sleep.

Conclusion
Weve listed and briefly described 10 benefits of using a RAID log. It is an important and often
overlooked project tool which can help you, the project manager, deliver an outstanding project or
programme which in turn will lead you to fame and riches; if thats what you want of course. Project
sponsors can profit from the continuity that a RAID log ensures; a well maintained log will facilitate
a smoother change-over of staff, particularly project managers or project leaders.
There are health warnings of course; deciding to use a RAID log will take a lot of your project
management time to implement and manage. Once you have the RAID log implemented you will
need to allocate time to review and update the log on a regular basis. This system will pay dividends
if properly maintained.
Youve read the benefits, go on get yourself a RAID log for your project!

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