Run a Risk Analysis

Run a Risk Analysis Video

Run a risk analysis to estimate the likelihood of meeting a project’s cost and schedule objectives. Select a preset analysis type or customize its settings before running the analysis. Risk analysis supports up to 30,000 risks.

If activities have changed, run the scheduler before running risk analysis to ensure that activity data is current.

You can also run risk analysis from the project Risk Register, Response Actions, and Risk Iteration Analysis pages.

Note If any updates are made to activities, run the scheduler before running a risk analysis to ensure activity data is up to date.

To run a risk analysis:

In the object selector, select Project, select View Projects List, and then select a project name.
From the Main Menu, select Risk, and then select Risk Analysis.
Select Run Risk Analysis.
In the Run Risk Analysis dialog box, move the slider to select an analysis type:
- Fast Analysis: Fewer results are calculated, but the process takes less time to complete.
- Normal Analysis: A moderate number of results are calculated. This is the default setting.
- Comprehensive Analysis: The maximum number of results are calculated. This option increases risk analysis time.
When you select an analysis type, a summary of its options displays below the preset name.
(Optional) Select Advanced Options to customize the analysis settings.
Note When any advanced options are modified, the slider displays Custom. Select Reset Default Options to return the slider and all options to Normal Analysis.
- Iterations / Maximum Iterations: Enter the maximum number of iterations to be run for each risk analysis scenario.
  Note When Use Convergence is selected, this field is labeled Maximum Iterations and the risk analysis runs until the specified convergence criteria are met, or until the analysis reaches the specified maximum number of iterations. For more information, see Understanding Convergence. You can view the Risk Analysis Log to see iteration details.
- Select Analysis Results: Select the data to calculate and include in the risk analysis results. Selecting all activities increases risk analysis time.
  - Project Only: Project cost, duration, start, and finish results are calculated. No activity results are calculated.
  - Project, Milestone and Level of Effort Activities: Project results are calculated. Only milestone and level of effort activity results are calculated.
  - Project and All Activities: Project results and all activity duration, start, and finish results are calculated.
    Note To produce risk iteration analysis results, you must select Project and All Activities.
  For Level of Effort and WBS Summary activities, risk analysis excludes weather risks and ignores schedule impact from mapped risks. Cost impact is included.
- Risk Removal Impact Analysis: Select this option to run a risk removal impact analysis for the selected response contexts. A risk removal impact analysis measures and ranks the potential impact of each risk on the cost and completion date of the entire project. The analysis also measures and ranks the potential impact of activity uncertainty on the completion date of the project.
- Proposed Risks: Select this option to include risks with a status of Proposed during the risk analysis.
- Response Context: Select the context to run during the risk analysis.
  Random Number Generator Seed: Set a seed for the random number generator. Random numbers are used in the risk analysis to sample values such as activity duration, risk probability, and risk schedule impact.
  
  The random number generator used by the application requires an initial seed to set the starting point for generating a series of random numbers. The seed controls whether the generator produces a new set of random numbers or repeats a specific sequence of random numbers.
  
  If you use the same seed, the application generates the same random numbers each time. The analysis produces the same iteration results unless the model changes in a way that causes distributions to use different random numbers, such as adding an activity distribution or changing the number of risks.
  
  Use the same seed to assess the effect of model changes. When you rerun the analysis, changes in the results reflect changes to the model’s distributions rather than random sampling. Using the same seed also helps ensure that documented presentation results match a real-time demonstration.
  
  If a random seed is used, the application uses the current clock time to seed the random number generator each time an analysis is run.
  
  If results vary significantly when you change the seed, the analysis might not use enough iterations. Use convergence to help ensure that the analysis performs enough iterations.
- Seed: Enter the number to be used to set the starting point for the random number generator.
  Note Random number generator options are not available if you choose to use convergence during the risk analysis.
- Use Convergence: Select this option to automatically determine when enough iterations have run on a model.
  As the analysis runs, results converge until further iterations change the results by only a small percentage. At that point, the application stops the analysis. If you select this option, the analysis runs until it meets the configured convergence criteria or reaches the maximum number of iterations.
- Schedule Cost: When this option is selected, the activity costs can vary for each iteration. This increases risk analysis time. If not selected, activity costs remain fixed for each iteration. The toggle is off by default.
- Convergence Threshold: The maximum percentage deviation at which analysis results are considered converged.
- Convergence Iteration Frequency: The number of iterations before the analysis results are retested for convergence.
  Note For more information about convergence options, see Understanding Convergence.
- Optimistic Percentile: Enter a value (0% to 100%) to be used to calculate optimistic percentiles.
- Pessimistic Percentile: Enter a value (0% to 100%) to be used to calculate pessimistic percentiles.
Select Run Risk Analysis to start the analysis process.
A notification banner displays while the risk analysis is in progress. You can view the most recent risk analysis status and run date and time next to Run Risk Analysis.

To review processing details, warnings, errors, or failed risk analyses, see the Risk Analysis Log.

Note When activity date indicators are enabled, risk analysis displays indicators for the Start and Finish dates of activities with actual dates or assigned constraints. The application does not display a constraint indicator when the As Late As Possible constraint is selected. See Configure Activity Date Indicators for information about enabling indicators.

Last Published Monday, October 19, 2026