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Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Define risk assessments

Change Management - Risk Assessment provides a flexible way to capture information from the end user to calculate the risk of the associated change request. You can define the risk assessment questions, thresholds, and conditions that calculate risk for any change request.

Before you begin

Role required: itil_admin

Change Management - Risk Assessment must be activated.

About this task

You can use a series of questions to capture the risk of a change. A different assessment of the questionnaire can be defined on the change record. The assessment uses a weighted score approach for each question. The composite weighted score derived from the answer of the end user is used to calculate risk. This score is based on the thresholds associated with the risk assessment.

Change Risk Assessment is an application built on Survey and Assessment V2 architecture. While it's possible to configure multiple metric categories on this architecture, it is better not to do so to avoid errors.

You can configure multiple change Risk Assessment definitions each with one Metric Category, where the Metric Category filter is identical to the filter of the change Risk Assessment condition.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Change > Administration > Risk Assessments.

  2. Select New.

  3. Complete the form, as appropriate.

FieldInput value
NameName for the risk assessment. This name is displayed to the end user.
StateThe state of the assessment: Draft or Published.
DescriptionDescription of the risk assessment.
ConditionConditions which determines if a risk assessment is attached to the change. Typically, the first attachment that matches the conditions gets attached during evaluation. Therefore, ensure that the conditions result in the correct assessments being attached especially when defining multiple questionnaires. Note: Ensure that the conditions are simple and mutually exclusive so that the assessment conditions are easy to understand and maintain.
  1. Select the form context menu and select Save.

    The page refreshes with the Assessment Categories and Assessment Thresholds related lists. The Assessment Categories related list enables you to define the questions that the end user answers to assess the risk of a change request.

  2. Complete the following steps to create an assessment question.

    1. In the Assessment Categories related list, select New.

    2. Complete the form, as appropriate.

      FieldDescription
      NameName of the assessment category.
      Create StakeholdersIf selected, automatically creates stakeholders for all assessable records linked to this category.
      WeightValue that represents importance of this category relative to other categories. The weight is multiplied to the score of the answer to calculate the weighted score.
      FilterOnly assessable records that meet filter conditions are evaluated by metrics in this category.
      DescriptionDescription of the assessment category.
    3. Select Submit.

    4. Open the assessment category.

    5. In the related list, select Assessment Metrics.

    6. Complete the form, as appropriate.

FieldDescription
NameName of the assessment metric.
CategoryThe category of the assessment metric.
MethodThe method of gathering data for this metric.
WeightValue that represents importance of this metric relative to other metrics. The weight is multiplied to the score of the answer to calculate the weighted score.
OrderOrder of the question in the assessment.
ActiveIf selected, the metric is activated to be used for assessments and result calculations.
MandatoryIf selected, makes a field mandatory in an assessment.
General
QuestionQuestion that is displayed on the assessment.
DescriptionTool tip text for the assessment.
Depends onThe condition that determines whether the metric is shown to the user or not.
Allow Additional InformationIf selected, a text box appears for the user to enter additional information for the question.
Field Type
Data typeThe data type of the answer that is given by a user for a question. Note: Depending on the data type that you select, additional fields may appear.
7.  Select **Submit**.

8.  In the **Assessment Threshold** related list, select **New**.

9.  Complete the form, as appropriate.
FieldDescription
Risk AssessmentThe assessment name for which assessment threshold is applied.
RiskRisk value applied on the change request. Note: Risk value can be overridden by risk conditions.
ApplicationThe name of the application that contains the record.
Score greater thanThe threshold against which the composite score is compared and evaluated.
10. Select **Submit**.

**Note:** You can create or edit the assessment questionnaire through the Assessment Designer module or by clicking **Edit in Assessment Designer** related link.

For example, after you define the risk assessment, this is how the risk assessment score is calculated and set.

-   **asmt\_metric\_result** stores the score set.
-   The weight is calculated as `sum (asmt_metric_result.normalized_value)` where `asmt_metric_result.normalized_value = actual_value * weight`.
-   The risk calculated as `sum(actual_value * weight) > threshold`. For example, If the result is 7 and moderate threshold is 6 risk is moderate.

Parent Topic:Risk assessment

Related topics

Perform risk assessment