Free RAID Templates: RAID Analysis
Matrix Logs, Registers, and Reports
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By Kate Eby | December 13, 2022
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In this article, you’ll find the most popular and effective RAID (risks,
assumptions, issues, and dependencies) templates for project
managers, analysts, project sponsors, Scrum masters, team members,
and others.
On this page, you’ll find a basic RAID log template, a RAID matrix log
template, and a RAID log presentation template. If you’re looking for
more specific templates, you can download options for an Agile RAID
template and a RAID analysis report template. Plus, discover the
benefits of using RAID log templates and more.
In this article
Basic RAID Log Template
RAID Matrix Log Template
RAID Log Presentation Template
Agile RAID Template
RAID Analysis Report Template
What Is a RAID Log Template?
Benefits of a RAID Log Template
What Should a RAID Log Template Contain?
How to Use a RAID Log Template
Anticipate and Mitigate Project Risks with RAID Templates from
Smartsheet
Basic RAID Log Template
Download a Sample Basic RAID Log Template for
Excel | PowerPoint | Google Slides | Google Sheets
Download a Blank Basic RAID Log Template for
Excel | PowerPoint | Google Slides | Google Sheets
Use this basic RAID log template to organize your project’s risks,
assumptions, issues, and dependencies. For each of your project’s
tasks, features, and events, select the appropriate RAID category,
provide a description, pinpoint the item’s impact on the project’s
schedule or deliverables, assign an owner to address or resolve the
item, and identify the item’s priority. Customize this template to
proactively identify all your project items and, therefore, complete
your project successfully.
You can download two versions of this template: a blank one and a
template with sample text to guide you through the RAID log process.
For more project issue templates and resources to help you implement
RAID effectively, see this comprehensive collection of free issue
tracking templates that covers software, product, production, and
customer issues.
RAID Matrix Log Template
Download a RAID Matrix Log Template for
Excel | Google Sheets
Organize your project, program, or product’s RAID with this dynamic
RAID matrix log template. Project managers and team members alike
can benefit from this dynamic, easy-to-use, single-source tracking
template, which enables users to enter each task’s name, RAID
category, impact, status, assignee, and due date. Built-in swimlanes
allow you to indicate whether your task is in the planning, progress,
deliverables, or results phase.
See this article on free, customizable risk matrix templates to make
sure you’re proactively accounting for all risk factors in your project
planning, monitoring, and assessment.
RAID Log Presentation Template
Download a RAID Log Presentation Template for
PowerPoint | Google Slides
This RAID log presentation template offers meeting-ready slides that
help you update your team members, project sponsors, and other
stakeholders regarding the status of both your overall project and its
individual tasks. Use this visually rich template to list your project’s
risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies, so you can present a
high-level explanation of your project’s challenges.
With this template, you can make sure that you and your team
maintain high project standards by proactively identifying and
resolving project issues in a timely manner.
To find solutions and resources for optimizing your RAID efforts, see
this collection of free risk management plan templates.
Agile RAID Template
Download an Agile RAID Template for
Excel | Google Sheets
You and your Agile development team need a dynamic way to capture
any risks you may encounter during the course of a project. You also
need to be able to identify any incorrect assumptions you may have
about a project, so you can fine-tune when necessary. With this Agile
RAID template, you can accomplish all of the above and address any
further issues, so you and your team can complete your project
successfully.
This template allows you to achieve the Agile methodology’s primary
goals — solution improvement, cross-functionality, adaptive planning,
evolutionary development, and perpetual improvement — so you can
guarantee project success.
To learn more about mitigating risk in your Agile development
projects, check out this comprehensive article with free,
customizable risk register templates and forms.
RAID Analysis Report Template
Download a RAID Analysis Report Template for
Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs
With this RAID analysis report template, you can perform a complete
analysis of your project’s risks, assumptions, issues, and
dependencies in order to gauge the probability and impact of project
roadblocks. This project planning tool enables you to record
expectations accurately and identify assumptions from the outset, so
you can communicate effectively with all your project stakeholders
and team members.
Use this template to document and optimize your project planning and
monitoring and to maintain quality standards, so you can improve your
overall project success rate.
Read our guide to RAID analysis to ensure that you optimize your
project, program, or product according to RAID organizational
principles.
What Is a RAID Log Template?
A RAID log template is a tool for identifying your project’s risks,
assumptions, issues, and dependencies. Use this template to
proactively resolve issues, monitor progress, and identify potential
roadblocks, so you and your team can execute your project
successfully.
With a RAID template, you can clearly illustrate the following: your
project’s risks, the ways in which you might mitigate those risks, and
your team’s assumptions regarding the requirements of your project.
For example, your team might assume that a vendor will deliver a
project component on time, but if that component arrives behind
schedule, the delay could present risks to the project.
Additionally, a RAID template helps you capture issues that you need
to document, so you can assign them to the appropriate team
members for resolution. Moreover, a RAID template enables you to
clarify any project dependencies, so you can properly notify and
adequately resource the necessary parties. Now you can proactively
account for every project factor.
Benefits of a RAID Log Template
A RAID log template offers a number of benefits: It provides you and
your team with an effective method for organizing your project;
ensures that you’ve accounted for all risks, assumptions, issues, and
dependencies; and more.
From project planning to project delivery, a RAID log template gives
you the power you need to complete your project successfully. This
tool enables you to break your project into phases and tasks, assign
the responsibilities, set due dates, and monitor their progress to
ensure completion. With such a system in place, nothing can derail
your project.
What Should a RAID Log Template Contain?
A RAID log template should contain a comprehensive list of a project’s
features, deliverables, and individual tasks. Each item should contain
these designations: a risk, assumption, issue, or dependency; an
identification number; a deadline, a description, and an assignee.
Reference the following list of RAID definitions to determine how to
categorize each project item:
Risk: Identify a project item as a risk if that item could have a
negative impact on the project.
Assumption: Identify a project item as an assumption if that item is
something you consider to be true without verification.
Issue: Identify a project item as an issue if you need to resolve that
item in order to complete the project.
Dependency: Identify a project item as a dependency if that item
involves personnel or resources from another department or a third
party.
Though individual RAID templates might vary, they typically include
the following components:
Task Name: Enter a name for each project task.
RAID Category: Identify each project task as a risk, assumption, issue,
or dependency.
Description: Provide a brief description of each project item, so team
members, project sponsors, and other stakeholders can easily identify
the item.
Assignee: Include the name of the task owner, i.e., the person
responsible for completing the task.
Due Date: Set a deadline for the completion of each project task.
Priority: Select the priority level for each task (i.e., low, medium, high,
critical) so that all relevant parties are in lockstep.
Some RAID templates also include the following details:
Item Number: Designate a unique ID number to easily track and
reference each project item.
Phase: For multiphase projects, enter the phase during which the
project task will occur (e.g., planning, quality assurance, review,
results).
Impact: Select the impact that each project item has on the overall
project. For example, if a project item falls into the risk category, then
the impact of this item would be high because the project is at risk if
you don’t mitigate the item.
Status: Include the status of each project item.
Date Raised: Provide the date during which you and your team first
brought up the subject/item (if that date falls outside the project
planning phase).
Notes: Provide any additional notes related to each project item.
How to Use a RAID Log Template
Use a RAID log template to designate to-do items in your project as
risks, assumptions, issues, or dependencies. You can use the template
during project planning, project monitoring, and project retrospectives
to manage your project successfully and improve your standards.
During project planning, you should use a RAID template to help
yourself account for potential project risks, identify your initial
assumptions, determine the issues that you need to address and
resolve, and define your resource dependencies. Without documenting
these factors from the outset, you risk mission or scope creep and
potential project failure.
Once the project is underway, you can monitor an item’s RAID
category to review or update its status, as well as anticipate and
proactively address any risks to the project. RAID templates offer
plenty of flexibility — you can log any necessary changes (e.g., assign
a task or issue to a different team member) and make sure that
everything’s on track for project completion.
After you complete the project successfully, you can use your RAID
template for a project retrospective. You can analyze what went well,
what the team experienced, what you could refine, and how you’ll
apply what you learned to improve future projects. By using a RAID
template for project retros, you can standardize your practices and
increase your project success rate.
Anticipate and Mitigate Project Risks with RAID
Templates from Smartsheet
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