Recording and Tracking Organizational Risk

A risk register is the central repository where an organization documents each identified risk, with its description, owner, likelihood and impact assessment, chosen treatment strategy and current status, serving as the single source of truth for risk management instead of relying on spreadsheets scattered across different areas. Keeping it up to date requires a periodic follow-up process in which each risk owner reports progress on mitigation actions, and in which it's reviewed whether the original risk assessment is still valid or needs to be recalculated in light of changes in the environment. In practice, a risk register that isn't reviewed regularly quickly becomes obsolete and loses credibility with leadership, because risks mitigated months ago end up still marked as open, or relevant new risks never get added, which requires assigning a formal review cadence instead of leaving it to each owner's initiative.