Risk assessment is a structured process used to identify, analyze, and document potential adverse events that could affect a system, activity, or decision. It focuses on determining what can go wrong, how likely it is to occur, and what the consequences would be.
Operationally, a risk assessment typically involves:
- Defining scope and context: specifying the system, operation, phase, or decision being examined.
- Identifying hazards or threats: listing conditions, failures, or events that could lead to undesired outcomes.
- Analyzing likelihood: estimating how frequently each identified risk could occur, using data, models, or expert judgment.
- Analyzing impact: determining the potential severity of consequences (for example, on safety, mission performance, cost, or schedule).
- Evaluating risk level: combining likelihood and impact using defined criteria or matrices to classify risks (e.g., low, medium, high).
- Documenting and reviewing: recording assumptions, inputs, rationale, and results, and subjecting them to independent or peer review.
In aerospace and other safety-critical domains, risk assessments are typically performed at defined project milestones, design reviews, or operational changes. They use established methods (such as hazard analyses, FMEA, or fault tree analysis) and traceable criteria so that decisions about design, operations, and configuration changes can be made in a repeatable and auditable way.