Patent ID: 8260653

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining a level of risk in undertaking a financial services project to implement a change, the method comprising: receiving, at a computing device, a plurality of responses to questions, each question related to one of a plurality of risk categories associated with the financial services project; identifying, by a computing device processor, one or more inherent risks associated with a corresponding risk category based on the responses to the questions and a mitigation plan for each identified risk; receiving, at a computing device, numeric risk ratings for each of the identified inherent risks, wherein the risk ratings include severity of risk, probability of risk occurrence and ability to detect risk; receiving, at a computing device, a mitigation plan for each identified inherent risk; identifying, by a computing device processor, one or more residual risks associated with a corresponding risk category based on the mitigation plan for each identified inherent risk; receiving, at a computing device, numeric risk ratings for each of the identified residual risks, wherein the risk rating incorporates the risk rating for each identified inherent risk and the mitigation plan; determining, by a computing device processor, a risk priority number (RPN) for each of the identified inherent and residual risks based on the numeric risk ratings; calculating, by a computing device processor, a risk level for each identified inherent and residual risk based at least in part on the RPN, wherein the risk level reflects whether the identified risk exhibits a combination of high severity and low detectability; aggregating, by a computing device processor, each risk priority number (RPN) associated with an inherent risk related to a risk category and calculating an average inherent RPN for each of the plurality of risk categories; comparing, by a computing device processor, a highest average inherent RPN for the project to highest average inherent RPNs of other projects to facilitate cross-project comparison of risk and reward balance; and displaying, on a display device, an escalation flag for each identified inherent and residual risk.