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Adding Obstacles and Risks to your cards helps teams identify challenges early, track potential issues, and ensure the right people are accountable for resolving them. By documenting obstacles and risks directly within a card, your team maintains visibility into what may impact progress and can take action quickly to stay on track.

Purpose

The purpose of this feature is to allow users to identify, track, and manage potential issues that may impact the success of an outcome, project, initiative, milestone, or story.

Capturing obstacles and risks ensures that teams remain proactive rather than reactive, improving transparency and enabling faster problem resolution.

Business Case

Projects and initiatives rarely move forward without challenges. By documenting obstacles and risks within cards, organizations can:

• Increase visibility into potential blockers.
• Assign accountability for resolving issues.
• Monitor the severity and progress of risks.
• Keep leadership informed of potential impacts on outcomes.

This structured approach allows teams to mitigate risks early and keep work moving forward smoothly.

Overview

Obstacles and risks can be added to any card type within the platform.

They are managed through the Obstacles tab within the card and allow users to record important information such as impact level, ownership, and resolution status.

Once added, obstacles and risks become part of the card’s activity, making them visible to team members and leadership who are monitoring progress.

How to Add an Obstacle or Risk

Follow these steps to add an obstacle or risk to a card:

• Open the card where you want to track the obstacle or risk.
• Navigate to the Obstacles tab within the card.
• Click the + (Plus) icon to add a new entry.
• Enter the required information:

Title

• Provide a clear name for the obstacle or risk.

Description

• Add details describing the issue, potential impact, or relevant context.

Type

• Select whether the item is an Obstacle or a Risk.

Impact Level

Choose the severity level:

• Low
• Medium
• High
• Critical

Owner

• Assign the person responsible for managing or resolving the obstacle or risk.

Status

Select the current progress state:

• Not Started
• In Progress
• Completed
• On Hold

Estimated Completion Date

• Enter the expected date when the obstacle or risk will be resolved.

Click Save to record the obstacle or risk.

What Happens Next

Once saved, the obstacle or risk becomes part of the card and can be monitored by the team. This helps teams:

• Track potential blockers affecting work progress.
• Maintain accountability for resolution.
• Keep stakeholders informed of emerging risks.

Summary

Adding obstacles and risks to cards ensures that challenges are visible, owned, and actively managed. By documenting issues directly within the work item, teams can identify problems early, coordinate solutions, and keep initiatives moving forward with greater confidence and transparency.