Risk Mitigation Module
Named as a module, but given no section of its own
Risk Mitigation is listed as one of the seven DSP modules in Definition of a module, and described there. Unlike the other six, it has no section in the Technical Modules chapter of the source handbook, so there is no material under the usual headings for its methods, tools, inputs or outputs.
Its dependencies are documented, but they appear in the wrong place: under "Iterative steps within the process" in Problem Framing and Scope. That material is reproduced here, where it belongs.
Nothing has been written to fill the remaining gaps.
What the module does
Risk Mitigation evaluates the risks, costs and benefits of intervention plans, meaning proactive measures. It combines two techniques:
| Technique | What it produces | |
|---|---|---|
| i | Asset-condition based Risk-Cost-Benefit Analysis | Quantifies and, where possible, monetises environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts |
| ii | Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis | Scores options against the organisation's own objectives and criteria |
On that combined basis it prioritises interventions under legal, financial, economic and time constraints, at asset, system and network levels.
A multi-stage decision module
The module depends on upstream risk and asset information, and internally links optioneering with portfolio optimisation before selected schemes proceed to detailed development and delivery.
Two DSP processes are stages of this one module
This is the structural point that is easy to miss. Detailed Option Assessment and Portfolio Optimisation are described here as internal stages of the Risk Mitigation Module, rather than as independent processes that merely use it.
Optioneering identifies and assesses feasible interventions; portfolio optimisation selects and combines them into a coordinated and deliverable programme.
Core activities
Three activities define the module's work. They appear in the source under Problem Framing, but describe mitigation rather than framing.
Define the mitigation objective
Specify:
- The risk to be treated
- The affected asset or service
- The required performance outcome
- The assessment horizon
- Any unacceptable risk thresholds
Generate mitigation options
Identify a broad range of measures:
| Category | Measures |
|---|---|
| Physical works | Maintenance, repair, renewal, strengthening, protection |
| Information | Monitoring |
| Operational | Operational controls, demand management |
| System design | Redundancy |
| Preparedness | Emergency preparedness |
| Environmental | Nature-based or adaptation measures, where applicable |
Only five of the eleven involve construction
The list deliberately spans well beyond building things. Demand management, monitoring and emergency preparedness are all legitimate mitigations, and they are usually the cheapest and fastest to deploy.
Consider interdependencies
Where an option affects connected assets or systems, test whether it creates additional requirements, constraints, benefits or unintended consequences elsewhere.
Upstream dependencies
| Source | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Risk Assessment | Prioritised risks, risk drivers, likelihood and consequence values, and the baseline against which risk reduction is assessed |
| Asset Registry and Asset Performance | Asset characteristics, condition, deterioration curves, capacity and expected future performance |
| Technical Details Database, or Options Library | Standard materials, methods, designs, strategies, service lives, costs and applicability rules |
| Sustainability assessment | Carbon, environmental, life-cycle, biodiversity and socioeconomic criteria for option appraisal |
| Resilience analysis | Option-comparison criteria such as robustness, redundancy, recoverability and disruption reduction |
| Asset and system interdependency modelling | Physical, informational, geospatial, functional and logical relationships that may change the feasibility, cost or benefit of an option |
| User and stakeholder input | Decision criteria, constraints, risk appetite, service requirements and acceptable trade-offs |
Resilience assesses the options, not the original risk
The handbook is precise about the resilience relationship: it is used to assess the merits of mitigation options, rather than as a direct input to the original risk calculation.
This is the same boundary Resilience states from its own side, where it notes twice that it does not feed the risk valuation model or the risk matrix.
Internal and downstream dependencies
| Stage | What it does with the module's output |
|---|---|
| Portfolio optimisation stage | Receives the feasible intervention options, mitigation packages, adaptation pathways, cost and benefit estimates, risk-reduction values, delivery constraints and dependencies produced by optioneering. Prioritises activities, develops schedules and allocates resources at route or portfolio level |
| Scheme outline design | Develops selected options into a more detailed and deliverable scheme definition |
| Funding and budgeting processes | Test affordability and establish the Financial Case |
| Programme management, governance and reporting | Provide approvals, assurance, monitoring and performance reporting, the Management Case |
| Procurement and commercial processes | Determine the delivery and contracting approach, the Commercial Case |
| Implementation and monitoring | Deliver the selected intervention, and generate updated condition, cost and performance evidence for future risk and mitigation assessments |
The last row closes the loop
Implementation does not end the process. It generates the evidence that the next risk and mitigation assessment will be based on, which is the same feedback the decision support cycle describes at framework level.
The three middle rows correspond to the three outputs shown leaving this part of the master diagram, labelled with their HM Treasury business case names.
Where the module's techniques are documented
Although the module has no section of its own, both of its techniques are described in full as part of the technical processes:
| Technique | Where it is documented |
|---|---|
| Multi-Criteria Analysis, including criteria selection, pairwise weighting, scoring and aggregation | Detailed option assessment |
| Risk-Cost-Benefit Analysis and economic appraisal | Detailed option assessment |
| Screening a long list down to a shortlist | Risk reduction analysis |
| Prioritising and sequencing across a programme | Portfolio optimisation |
A question for the authors
Given that the analysis lives in the technical processes, and that two of those processes are described here as internal stages of this module, it is worth confirming whether Risk Mitigation is intended as a distinct module alongside the other six, or as the umbrella under which stages four and five operate.
The two readings imply different answers to whether the module list should say six or seven.