An Improved Alternative to Heat Map Risk Matrices for Project Risk Prioritization

Abstract

In a previous article we discussed the weaknesses of the popular heat map style risk matrix for project risk prioritization, and we proposed an alternative called the risk adjusted loss (RAL) method. Although the RAL method demonstrated significant improvement, there were mechanical as well as interpretive issues associated with it. This paper describes improvements to the RAL method and experimentally demonstrates its superiority over the heat map style risk matrix for prioritizing project risks.