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The seventh & final pillar of the CQE Body of Knowledge is dedicated to the topic of risk management and it contains 3 main chapters within it, Risk Fundamentals, Risk  Planning and Assessment & Risk Treatment, Control and Monitoring.

In fact it’s important to note that the CQE Body of knowledge was revised in 2022, and the entire Risk Management Pillar was completely overhauled.

Below is a video (starting at 14:18) that describes these changes to the Risk Management Portion of the CQE body of knowledge.

In terms of the overall CQE body of knowledge, this pillar comprises 21 questions out of the total 160 which is around 13% of the exam.

Risk Fundamentals

The first chapter within risk management is all about the Risk Fundamentals, which form the basics of risk management.

Before we jump into those topics we need to lay the foundation for the entire risk management section & cover the concept of risk itself.

To do this, we will start by answering the question- what is Risk?

Then we discuss the different types of Quality Risks to be aware of.

Then the first major topic is the process & framework for the entire risk management pillar, and how risk management should be integrated into the Quality System(QS).

This is the foundation work that must be performed before you can start identifying and analyzing risk.

This includes setting the context of your risk management program, and determining the level of acceptable & unacceptable risk.

Risk Planning and Assessment

Risk can only be effectively managed when it is identified, analyzed & considered for mitigation.

The collective process of identifying, analyzing and evaluating risk is known as a Risk Assessment & this process can be summarized into three questions:

1. What might go wrong?

This is the Risk Identification question; what are those or sources of failure or failure modes that could reasonably occur.

2. What is the likelihood that individual something might go wrong, and what are the consequences when that something does occur?

This is the Risk Analysis question and it seeks to quantify or analyze the risk for each identified failure mode.

As we will discuss, Risk is considered the combination of both the likelihood of occurrence of a failure & the severity of that failure.

3. Finally, Is that risk ok?

This is the Risk Evaluation question. Once you’ve estimated the risk associated with each potential source of risk, you can then determine if any mitigations are needed to reduce that risk.

These three Risk Assessment process steps – Risk Identification, Risk Analysis & Risk Evaluation are the focus of this chapter and will be discussed in detail.

We will wrap up this chapter with a quick discussion about risk communication,  risk facilitation tools & the level of effort associated with the risk assessment process.

Risk Treatment, Control and Monitoring

Here we are on the last chapter of the Risk Management which is dedicated to the Topics of Risk Treatment, Control & Risk Monitoring.

This first section will close out with a discussion of Risk Acceptance & Residual Risk.

Conclusion

Alright – I hope you enjoyed this seventh & final pillar of the CQE Body of Knowledge that is dedicated to the topic of risk management and its 3 main chapters; Risk Fundamentals, Risk Planning & Assessment, and Risk Treatment, Control and Monitoring.

Wanna continue studying – go here CQE Body of Knowledge?