Should a closed risk be deleted from the risk register once it becomes an issue?

No — best practice is to mark it closed with a note showing it materialized and linking to the corresponding issue log entry, preserving the audit trail and letting future risk assessments learn from how accurate the original probability/impact estimate turned out to be.

Can an issue ever become a new risk?

Yes — resolving one issue sometimes introduces a new uncertain future consequence. For example, activating a backup vendor to resolve a missed-delivery issue might introduce a new risk: "the backup vendor's components may not pass incoming QA inspection," which gets logged fresh on the risk register.

Who owns the issue log versus the risk register on a PRINCE2 project?

Both are typically maintained by the Project Manager, but PRINCE2 requires certain issue types (Requests for Change, Off-Specifications that breach agreed tolerance) to be escalated to the Project Board for a formal decision — the risk register's response strategies, by contrast, are usually pre-approved within the Project Manager's existing tolerances.

Is "assumption" the same thing as a risk?

No. An assumption is a statement taken as true for planning purposes without proof (e.g., "we assume the client will approve drawings within 5 business days"). If that assumption later proves false, it typically converts directly into a risk or an issue depending on whether the falseness is still uncertain or has already been confirmed — but the assumption itself, while unverified, is neither.

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Concept Explainer · Project Management

Risk vs Issue

The line between the risk register and the issue log is a single word: "uncertain." The moment that uncertainty resolves, the entry has to move.

Project teams routinely mix these two logs, and the mixing has real consequences — a risk carries a probability and needs a contingency plan approved in advance, while an issue is already happening and needs a decision now. A risk is an uncertain future event that, if it occurs, would affect at least one project objective (schedule, cost, scope, or quality) — it might happen. An issue is a problem that has already occurred, or a certainty that has already materialized, and requires action today. The test PMP and PRINCE2 both apply is simple: has the uncertain event already happened? If yes, it's an issue (or has become one); if it's still a "might," it stays a risk.