HOW TO PERFORM A RISK ASSESSMENT

ACCORDING TO NFPA 1600 2007 ANNEX A

According to NFPA 1600 Annex A.5.3, a comprehensive
risk assessment would take the following steps:

• Identify the range of hazards, threats, or perils:

  • Identify the hazards, threats, or perils that
    impact or might impact your organization.

  • Identify the hazards, threats, or perils that
    impact or might impact your infrastructure.

  • Identify the hazards, threats, or perils that
    impact or might impact the surrounding area.

• Determine the potential impact of
  each hazard, threat, or peril by:

  • Estimating the relative severity
    of each hazard, threat, or peril.

  • Estimating the relative frequency
    of each hazard, threat, or peril.

  • Estimating the vulnerability to
    each hazard, threat, or peril.

    • Estimate how vulnerable your people
      are to each hazard, threat, or peril.

    • Estimate how vulnerable your operations
      are to each hazard, threat, or peril.

    • Estimate how vulnerable your property
      is to each hazard, threat, or peril.

    • Estimate how vulnerable your environment
      is to each hazard, threat, or peril.

• Categorize each hazard, threat, or peril according
  to how severe it is, how frequently it occurs, and
  how vulnerable you are.

• Develop strategies to deal with the most
  significant hazards, threats, or perils.

  • Develop strategies to prevent hazards, threats, or perils that impact or might impact your organization and its people, operations, property, and environment.

  • Develop strategies to mitigate hazards, threats, or perils that impact or might impact your organization and its people, operations, property, and environment.

  • Develop strategies to prepare for hazards, threats, or perils that impact or might impact your organization and its people, operations, property, and environment.

  • Develop strategies to respond to hazards, threats, or perils that impact or might impact your organization and its people, operations, property, and environment.

  • Develop strategies to recover from hazards, threats, or perils that impact or might impact your organization and its people, operations, property, and environment.

• Use a what-if analysis to identify specific hazards and hazardous situations. What-if questions are asked about what could go wrong and hazardous consequences are identified and analyzed. This type of analysis is a brainstorming activity and is carried out be people who have knowledge about the areas, operations, and processes that may be exposed to hazardous events and conditions.

• Use a checklist of known hazards to identify your hazards and hazardous situations. The value of this type of analysis depends upon the quality of the checklist and the experience of the user.

• Use a combination of checklists and what-if analysis to identify your hazards and hazardous situations. Checklists are used to ensure that all relevant what-if questions are asked and discussed, and to encourage a creative approach to risk assessment.

• Use a hazard and operability study (HAZOP) to identify your hazards and hazardous situations. If you need to do a very thorough analysis, this method is for you. However, it requires strong leadership and is costly and time consuming. It also assumes that you have a very knowledgeable interdisciplinary team available to you, one with detailed knowledge about the areas, operations, and processes that may be exposed to hazardous events and conditions.

• Use a failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) to identify potential failures and to figure out what effect failures would have. This method begins by selecting a system for analysis and then looks at each element within the system. It then tries to predict what would happen to the system as a whole when each element fails. This method is often used to predict hardware failures and is best suited for this purpose.

• Use a fault tree analysis (FTA) to identify all the things that could potentially cause a hazardous event. It starts with a particular type of hazardous event and then tries to identify every possible cause.

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Introduction to NFPA

Introduction to NFPA 1600

Overview of NFPA 1600 2007

NFPA 1600 2007 in Plain English

NFPA 1600 2004 in Plain English

NFPA 1600 2007 Plain English Audit

NFPA 1600 2007 Plain English Definitions

How to Develop an NFPA 1600 Mitigation Strategy

How to Conduct NFPA 1600 Business Continuity Planning

How to Develop an NFPA 1600 Corrective Action Procedure

Business Continuity Management using the NFPA 1600 Standard

Emergency Management using the NFPA 1600 Standard

Disaster Management using the NFPA 1600 Standard

Our Plain English Approach to NFPA 1600