Glossary
What is a RAID log?
A register of the four places delivery surprises come from — risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies — kept so each has demonstrably been looked at, not merely listed.
The categories are right; the usual ritual kills them. A standalone sheet filled at kickoff and reviewed monthly cannot distinguish "assessed, nothing found" from "nobody looked", so entries get invented to signal diligence. The working version attaches the four categories to the specific demand they belong to and makes assessed-and-empty a recordable answer.
What each letter means — and RAID log vs risk register
A risk is something that might happen and would hurt the delivery if it did. An issue is a risk that has already happened, or a problem nobody predicted: it needs an owner and a decision now, not a probability. An assumption is something the plan treats as true without evidence. A dependency is something the work needs from someone outside the team, by a certain point.
A risk register holds only the first of these. A RAID log widens the net to the other three, which is its real contribution: most delivery surprises start as an assumption nobody checked or a dependency nobody confirmed, and a register of risks alone never looks at either.
How to keep a RAID log that actually gets read
Attach the four categories to the specific piece of work they concern, not to a separate document named after a project — entries are only useful when they are in front of the person about to commit to that work. Give each category three states: not assessed, assessed and nothing found, and assessed with items, so an honest blank is distinguishable from a skipped step.
Then give each kind of entry the grammar it needs. A dependency is a request: from whom, what exactly, by when, and whether they have agreed. An issue has an owner and names the decision or help it needs. An assumption is re-checked at commitment, when it either becomes a fact or becomes a risk someone accepts.
Common mistakes
Filling the log in at kickoff and reviewing it monthly, so it is read by nobody in between. Inventing entries to look diligent — they consume review attention and make the log look trustworthy when it is not. Listing risks with no one who has accepted them. And expecting a log to stop anything: an unagreed dependency only changes a decision if the commitment step reads it.
Related terms
- Vertical work — A delivery stream owned by a single team or discipline that produces end-to-end value within its own lane — frontend, backend, data, mobile, platform.
- Horizontal work — A cross-cutting concern that pulses into several delivery streams at specific gates — security review, legal, compliance, design, accessibility, privacy.
- Readiness (three-state) — A planning dimension has three states, not two: not assessed, assessed and nothing found, and assessed with items.
This definition comes from building DeliverySheet — it takes a vague work request to a clear delivery decision, so the shape, owner, capacity, dependencies and open questions are on the table before anyone commits people or a date.
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