Risk assessment

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OVERVIEW

Risk assessment is a key element of all project management and business planning. It is about thinking through what might go wrong at any stage, what are the potential weaknesses and threats to the success of the work, how significant they are how likely they are to happen. For example, what will you do if a key member of staff is off sick for an extended period of time, is there any chance of a serious failure of any of the equipment or software you will be using, is the budget in danger of being cut, and so on. Having identified possible risks, you will then need to think about how you might revise your plan to reduce the liklihood of anything happening and what level of risk you feel you can live with.

Also take into account the disaster, emergency or business continuity plans of your organisation. These are about how serious incidents such as fire, flood, bomb threat or theft are managed and you will need to make sure that your work is included.

Stages of risk assessment

Risk assessment and management will go through a number of phases: identifying the risk, deciding how likely it is that the risk will become a reality, understanding its impact on the work or programme (for example on staff, equipment, budget or time) and planning how the risk will be managed and monitored or what actions will be put in place to control it.

As you identify potential risks, it is a good idea to compile a risk register documenting information including the risk and its possible causes, its liklihood, its impact on your work (for example if are there financial implications, does it affect the timetable) and how you propose to manage and/or mitigate the risk. You should be clear about who will take responsbility for risk management, whether you need to allow a budget and whether one risk might trigger another. Bear in mind that risk management is an ongoing process, rather than a one-off exercise.

IPR and licensing and risk assessment

A key element of any digitisation project or programme will be understaning what the IPR and licensing implications are for the materials being digitised and the way in which they will be used. This is particularly important where it is not immediately obvious who owns the IPR in a particular resource and where risk assessment will be needed. Use the IPR Risk Assessmentsbriefing paper to get started, and then try the Web2rights risk management calculator tool to help with decision-making in individual items.

Further information

JISC Infonet on managing risk

Office of Government Commerce advice on risk management

Harvested links to further resources

Rethinking Risk - Approaches to Museum Governance: Abstract of a presentation by Adrian Babbidge to the 2020 Intercom Conference on the subject of Risk and Museum Governance. [?]
Be Prepared - Guidelines for Writing a Disaster Preparedness Plan: Published by the Collections Australia Network, this simple PDF book gives an excellent overview on Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Planning for smaller museums and cultural organisations. [?]
Building an Emergency Plan: A Guide for Museums: This full PDF publication was created by the Getty Conservation Institute to provide museums and other cultural institutions with an introduction to the principles and processes of developing an effec [?]
Risk Assessment Template: General Visit: One of a series of really useful templates from the Dover Museum showing an example risk assessment for a general site visit. [?]
Risk Assessment Template: Drama Workshops: One of a series of really useful templates from the Dover Museum showing an example risk assessment for a drama workshop. [?]
Risk Assessment Template: Art Workshops: One of a series of really useful templates from the Dover Museum showing an example risk assessment for a general art workshop. [?]
ICOM Guide to Assessing Risk for Museums: Produced for the International Council of Museums by Patrick Boylan, this short guide provides a simple tool for identifying and assessing risks from natural disasters or civil and/or armed conflict. [?]
Control of Substances Hazardous to HealthEssentials Assessment Summary Page: Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Essentials Assessment Summary Page. Provides simple step-by-step guidance for small businesses to control health risks to workers from chemicals. Reproduced u [?]
David Thomas presentation: Presentation by David Thomas, Chief Information Office at The National Archives. Stresses the idea of information as an asset, and the aim of managing information risk. Ideally need to share informati [?]
Using Cut Flowers and Potted Plants in Museums: Museums and Galleries Commission Factsheet: Using Cut Flowers and Potted Plants in Museums. Notes on the management risk and the prevention of damage to museum objects from pest infestation, pollen st [?]
Insurance for Museums: Insurance for museums: brokers, loss adjusters, risk management, different ways of insuring and understanding the cover. [?]
Overview: In the same way that technology has revolutionised modern society, it is revolutionising every aspect of collections management. The past decade has seen a huge investment in the developm [?]
Media Equation Pty Ltd: Media Equation Pty Ltd (me?) is an innovative digital asset management company, providing cultural institutions, publishers and corporations with practical and cost effective solutions. Our core competencies are in archival collection management, digital asset management, rights management and image and video distribution. me? business and software analysts, web developers and programmers are ably backed by technical support, marketing, customer service and business administration experts. me? has the philosophy that it shall remain a market leader by providing innovative and cost-effective solutions and outstanding customer service. [?]
New guide to copyright for cultural heritage organisations: The Collections Trust is delighted to announce the publication of a new guide to copyright for cultural heritage organisations. [?]
ChrisKirby: Chris Kirby Coventry Heritage and Arts Trust head of Collections and Progammes Coventry christopher.kirby@theherbert.org [?]

[[role::newcomer]] [[role::strategy manager]] [[role::policy maker]] [[role::project manager]] 
[[goal::managing]] [[goal::project]] [[goal::deciding]] [[goal::advice]] [[goal::developing]] 
[[goal::business plan]] [[goal::preserving]] [[goal::resource]] [[level::basic]] [[level::medium]]

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