Risk Management

      Methods and Tools

STOP LIGHT CHART

What Is It

Stoplight charts provide a means of showing status of risks using color displays. Typically, red, green, and yellow (stoplight) colors are used to indicate mitigation action status or risk impacts, depending on items defined by the project. Conditions as to what constitutes red, green, or yellow status must also be defined (and included in the chart for quick reference).

When To Use

Use this tool
  • To provide decision makers a general indication of how plans are doing and whether or not (more) action is required.
  • To supplement information to any risk management status tracking chart.

Benefits

This method
  • Is simple and quick to apply.
  • Focuses attention on important risk items or plans that are not working.
  • If used with an indicator of its progress, will illustrate the plan's history and immediate progress (if an item has gotten better or worse). A good indicator is an upward arrow (or downward arrow) to indicate stoplight status has gotten better (or gotten worse) since last report.