Risk Models

The Risk technology within NEXUS IC provides a powerful framework so that you can configure formalised risk assessment & RBI methodologies (e.g. API 581 BRD, DN- RP- G101, AS 2885.1, AS 4360) or set up custom risk models of any level of complexity (i.e., Corporate risk models, internally workshopped models, or tailored/customised models to suit specific issues or situations).

Here on the Configuration ‣ Assets ‣ Risk Models dialog you can create and configure Risk Models.

(To assign risk model(s) (and corresponding assessments) to an asset, go to Assets, select the Risk tab, and use the Assign button. You can assign more than one risk model to an asset.)

You can see what assets have a particular risk model assigned by clicking on the risk model, then clicking the Connections button.

Risk Models can optionally be given a (user-configurable) Model Status and a (user-configurable) Category. (This Category is separate from the Categories discussed below.)

When editing a Risk Model, you are able to restrict which asset types can have access to certain risk models. For example, a Piping risk model only needs to be applied to an asset of type Piping, not an asset of type Generator, so only Piping will be selected in the risk model’s Asset Types. This is done by editing the risk model and deselecting all except Piping in the Asset Types window.

The concept of Risk Models is hierarchical: the final Risk value is comprised of n Categories. Each Category value is comprised of n Factors. Each Factor value is comprised of n Calculations, Pass Thrus, Values and Factors.

Each of these entities (Category, Factor, etc.) is displayed in the bottom half of the Configuration - Risk Models dialog in a hierarchical structure tree, with each level expandable and collapsible.

When you create a new risk model (via the Add button), it has three top-level categories: Risk, X Value, and Y Value. X Value and Y Value are used to determine the position of the dot on the risk chart: 0 is at the left or bottom of the chart (depending on which axis we’re talking about), and 1 is at the right or top. Typically you want a function which puts each likelihood or consequence into its row or column, but you may also want to move to slightly different locations within a risk square based on scenario, so that different scenarios’ dots will not all draw over the top of each other.

The other top-level category, Risk, contains your risk model functionality. Beneath Risk you can add Factors, and below Factors you can add Calculations, Pass Thrus, Values and more Factors. Each factor has a Function, which you can access by clicking in the Function cell at the right-hand side of that factor’s row in the grid, and then clicking the ellipsis at the right of that cell. That function has all of the elements that are children of this factor as inputs, thus allowing you to combine all those inputs in whatever way is appropriate, for use by the next layer up. Ultimately, the function in the Risk element is therefore combining everything below it.

Risk models can pull information from Asset Information forms, or from calculations within the risk model, or from Values stored directly within the risk model assessment. If you are using more than one scenario for a single asset, the information that varies from one scenario to another should be stored as Values within the risk model. (You can add scenarios on the Assets Risk tab: click Edit to edit the assessment, then click add Scenario.)