What is the primary purpose of a risk register?

• A. To document costs and budgets
• B. To document lessons learned after project completion
• C. To manage change requests
• D. To document risks, their probability, impact, and response plans

Answer: (D)

In project risk management, having a central record of what could go wrong, how likely it is, how badly it could affect the project, and what you’ll do about it is essential. The risk register serves this purpose by documenting identified risks, their probability, impact, and the planned response actions, and it stays updated as the project evolves. This makes it easier to prioritize risks, assign owners, and track mitigation or contingency plans so the team can act proactively rather than reactively. Other artifacts focus on different aspects of a project: budgeting keeps track of costs, lessons learned are captured after completion, and change requests go through a separate change-control process. So the primary purpose of a risk register is to document risks, their probability, impact, and response plans.