RAM Risk Management & Mitigation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which risk mitigation strategy involves transferring the financial consequences of a risk to a third party?
- Risk avoidance
- Risk acceptance
- Risk transfer (Correct answer)
- Risk reduction
Correct answer: Risk transfer
Risk transfer shifts the financial burden of a risk to another party, typically through insurance or contractual agreements.
Question 2: In RAM analysis, what does the term 'risk priority number' (RPN) represent in an FMEA?
- The cost of failure
- The product of severity, occurrence, and detectability ratings (Correct answer)
- The probability of failure per hour
- The number of failure modes identified
Correct answer: The product of severity, occurrence, and detectability ratings
RPN is calculated by multiplying the severity, occurrence, and detectability ratings to prioritize failure modes in FMEA.
Question 3: A system has a probability of failure of 0.02 per mission. What is the reliability for that mission?
- 0.02
- 0.98 (Correct answer)
- 1.02
- 0.50
Correct answer: 0.98
Reliability equals 1 minus the probability of failure, so R = 1 - 0.02 = 0.98.
Question 4: Which approach to risk mitigation focuses on eliminating the hazard entirely rather than controlling its effects?
- Administrative controls
- Engineering controls — elimination (Correct answer)
- Personal protective equipment
- Risk monitoring
Correct answer: Engineering controls — elimination
Elimination removes the hazard at the source and is the most effective level of the hierarchy of controls.
Question 5: In a risk matrix, what does increasing the 'consequence' axis represent for a plotted risk?
- Higher likelihood of occurrence
- Greater impact severity if the risk occurs (Correct answer)
- Lower detectability of the failure
- Shorter time to failure
Correct answer: Greater impact severity if the risk occurs
The consequence axis in a risk matrix reflects the severity of impact should the risk event materialize.
Question 6: Which RAM metric directly measures the proportion of time a system is operational and able to perform its function?
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
- Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
- Availability (Correct answer)
- Failure Rate
Correct answer: Availability
Availability is defined as the fraction of time a system is in an operational state, typically expressed as MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR).
Question 7: What is the primary purpose of a 'watch list' in risk management?
- To document risks that have already occurred
- To track low-priority risks that do not currently require active mitigation (Correct answer)
- To record risks that have been fully mitigated
- To list risks transferred to third parties
Correct answer: To track low-priority risks that do not currently require active mitigation
A watch list monitors low-priority risks that are acknowledged but not yet requiring active mitigation action.
RAM Risk Management & Mitigation 2
Which risk mitigation strategy involves transferring the financial consequences of a risk to a third party?