The RAID Log: Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies

What is a RAID log and when should you use it?

RAID is a project-management checklist that keeps the things that can change a project's outcome visible to the whole team. In Autovella the four types are:

• Risk: something that might happen and hurt the project, such as a key supplier being late.
• Assumption: something you are treating as true without proof, such as the client approving the design in week one. Recording it means you notice when it stops being true.
• Issue: a problem that is already happening and needs action now.
• Dependency: something outside the team's control that the project relies on, such as an integration being delivered by another group.

Use it from the start of a project to capture risks and assumptions during planning, then keep it open during delivery to log issues and dependencies as they appear. Because every item sits on the project itself, status meetings can start from the list instead of from memory.

It complements, rather than replaces, tasks. Tasks are the work you will do. RAID items are the uncertainties around that work. If a risk needs an action, create a task for the mitigation in the project's task list and mention it in the RAID item's description.

How to open the RAID Log on a project or deal

1. Click Projects in the sidebar and open a project.
2. On the project page, click the RAID Log tab (warning-triangle icon) in the tab bar, alongside Overview, Tasks, Team, Attachments and Comments.
3. The log header shows the total number of items. Below it are filter buttons: All, Risk, Assumption, Issue and Dependency.

On a deal, the RAID Log appears as a section lower on the deal page, with the same controls. This is useful for recording assumptions behind a quote or dependencies that could stop a sale from closing. See Managing accounts, contacts and deals for the deal page itself.

How to add a risk, issue, assumption or dependency

1. In the RAID Log, click Add Item.
2. Choose the type from the first drop-down: Risk (the default), Assumption, Issue or Dependency.
3. Choose the status. It defaults to Open.
4. Type a Title. This is the only required field and can be up to 255 characters. Make it specific, for example Client sign-off on wireframes may slip past 15 March.
5. Add a Description if you want context, mitigation ideas or links to related work.
6. Set the Impact: Low, Medium, High or Critical. You can leave it unset if the impact is not yet known.
7. Pick an Owner from your organization's users, the person responsible for driving the item to resolution.
8. Set a due date, the date by which the item should be mitigated or resolved.
9. Click Add. The item appears at the top of the list, newest first, and Autovella confirms with RAID item added.

Each row in the list shows coloured badges for type, status and impact (for example high impact), the title, description, owner and due date. Use the filter buttons to focus on one type, such as only Issues before a stand-up.

To change an item, hover over its row and click the pencil icon, edit anything including the type, and click Save. To remove one, click the trash icon and confirm Delete. Deleting is permanent: RAID items are not sent to the recycle bin, so close an item instead if you want to keep the history.

How RAID statuses, impact and ratings work

Every item has one of four statuses:

• Open: recorded and not yet being addressed, or still active.
• Mitigated: actions have reduced the exposure, but the item has not fully gone away.
• Resolved: the risk did not materialise, the issue was fixed, or the dependency was delivered.
• Closed: nothing further to do, kept for the record.

These meanings are the usual convention. Autovella does not enforce a particular workflow, so agree with your team how you will use Mitigated versus Resolved.

Impact is a single rating from Low (grey), Medium (yellow), High (orange) to Critical (red). Autovella does not calculate a probability-times-impact score, so there is no automatic risk score. If your team scores risk, put the probability in the description or title, and use Impact together with the due date to decide what to tackle first.

Who can view and edit RAID items

RAID items follow the permissions of the record they belong to. They do not have a separate role setting. For a project, the rules are based on the Projects module, and for a deal on the Deals module:

• View: you need read access to the project or deal.
• Add Item: you need create or update access. If you have neither, the Add Item button is hidden.
• Edit (pencil icon): you need update access.
• Delete (trash icon): you need delete access.

The edit and delete icons only appear when you hover over an item. If you cannot see them at all, your role does not allow that action. Ask an administrator to review your role, see Roles, permissions and team sharing.

Owners must be users in the same organization, and the Owner drop-down lists the people you can see in the staff directory.

Notifications and integrations

If your organization has connected Slack, an administrator can choose RAID item created under Notify on so new items are posted to a channel. See Connecting Slack, Teams, GitHub, WhatsApp and email.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading