Risk Assessment
Occupational health and safety risk management in QDMS Now answers one question repeatedly: how big is this risk, and is it still that big after what we did about it?
Everything in the module follows from that shape. Each risk is scored twice — once before measures and once after — and the record walks a lifecycle designed to make the gap between those two scores visible and accountable.
A risk assessment that only scores once tells you what you were worried about. Scoring twice tells you whether the money you spent worked.
The building blocks
| Concept | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Risk main form | A register per hazard class. It owns the risk numbering and decides who may view, create and assess in it. See Risk Main Forms. |
| Risk | The assessment record. Carries the initial and final scorings, the sources, the responsibles and the revision chain. |
| Risk action | A control measure decided at the control step. Has its own state machine. See Control Measures. |
| Scoring | Probability × frequency × severity, resolved to a score and a risk level through formulas. See Scoring. |
The risk record
- Code — generated from the main form's numbering template. Until it is generated the record shows a placeholder.
- Risk main form — the register this risk belongs to.
- Date — when the assessment was made.
- Definition — what the hazard actually is.
- Notes — additional detail.
- Scope organization unit — where the risk applies.
- Sources — the hazard sources contributing to this risk.
- Responsibles — who is accountable.
- Measure not required — set when the assessment concludes no control measure is warranted.
- Initial scoring / final scoring — the two assessments. See Scoring.
The lifecycle
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Draft | The assessment is being written. Also where a rejected record lands so the reason can be worked on, and where a new revision starts. |
| Assessment | The initial scoring is entered and approved. |
| Control | Control measures are decided — or measure not required is set. |
| Waiting for measures | The measures are being carried out. |
| Verification | The final scoring is entered and the verifier judges whether the measures were sufficient. |
| Last approval | Final sign-off. |
| Active | The assessment is in force. |
| Inactive | Closed — withdrawn, superseded by a newer revision, or a revision abandoned before it took effect. |
"Require new measure" at verification sends the record back to Control, not to Waiting for Measures. This is deliberate: no new measure can be created in the waiting stage, so returning it there would strand the record waiting for work nobody could open.
Revisions
A risk is re-assessed by opening a revision — a new round under the same code, with an incremented revision number.
Two behaviours are worth knowing:
- The previous round stands down when the revision is opened, not when it is approved. The working list shows one row per code, and that row is the round currently being worked on.
- Abandoning a revision puts the previous round back in force. Cancelling a preparation is safe — you do not lose the assessment that was already in effect.
The revision strip on the record shows every round with its state, both scores and the resulting risk levels, so the trajectory of a risk over time is visible on one screen.
Linking to CAPA
Risks can have CAPA records opened against them. The risk's work view shows the measures and CAPAs of the current round and of earlier revisions together, so the full history of what was done about a hazard is in one place.