Whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a private consultancy firm, risk analysis helps put companies in a strategic position for success. Managers are able to discover new opportunities, better their business strategies, identify risk-causing factors, and avoid pitfalls. Having knowledge and skills in risk analysis in Excel can improve several aspects of a company.
In this article, you’ll find beginner, intermediate, and advanced risk analysis in Excel projects. If you are a complete beginner, you can use these project ideas to navigate Excel as a tool and potentially become an expert at risk analysis. The projects will expose you to a wide range of skills that will help you land a job in tech.
5 Skills That Risk Analysis In Excel Projects Can Help You Practice
Working on risk analysis projects in Excel will not only help you gain familiarity with the spreadsheet program, but you will also master additional skills. Microsoft Excel is mainly known for data analysis, but taking up projects in the program will help you acquire the skills listed below.
- Data Visualization. Risk analysis in Excel will expose you to data visualization tools, techniques, and processes. After determining the risk scores an organization or company is facing, you will often have to present your findings to stakeholders, clients, or colleagues.
- Data Simulation. Working with Excel requires you to make mathematical models to represent different features of a system. To be able to conduct simulations in Excel, you will need to develop knowledge in statistical functions, data tables, and the generation of functions.
- Statistical Language and Tools. If you are conducting a risk analysis, you will have the chance to familiarize yourself with R and SAS. R is used by developers for statistical computing. It is a popular statistical language for data analysis. It helps in prediction, validating results, and modeling. Statistical analysis systems (SAS) help in performing advanced analytics.
- Risk Management. Risk Management involves identifying, evaluating, and managing potential risks of a company. Through the projects, you will gain a wider perspective on financial security, strategic management, natural hazards, and regulatory liability. You will advance your skills in risk management capabilities, protocols, and practices.
- PowerPoint. You will encounter PowerPoint when presenting your findings to stakeholders or clients. As a presentation application, you can use it to demonstrate preliminary analysis, possible instructions, or transactional activities.
Best Risk Analysis In Excel Project Ideas for Beginners
Beginners in the field tend to miss opportunities simply because they lack proof of required skills. If you are familiar with basic concepts of risk analysis in Excel, you should consider projects in the same capacity. Below you will find a list of beginner-friendly Excel projects involving risk analysis.
Introducing the Open Group Open Fair Risk Analysis Tool
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Risk Management
This is a tool popularly used to accelerate the Open Fair Standard. Through this tool, novices and seasoned professionals are able to consistently perceive risks. The evaluator has embedded graphs, statistical results, annual loss exposure, and quantitative risk analysis.
You can use the information from this particular tool to work on your own accurate risk evaluator project. There are lots of resources on the best practices in using the Open Fair methodology.
ModelRisk
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Risk Management, Statistical Tools
This is an Excel add-in that you can use to feature uncertainty in your spreadsheet model. This particular model is popularly known for its easy build and test qualities. It comes with 136 probability distributions, 14 correlation models, modeling tools, and numerous exporting files.
It also features full compliance with Excel, interoperability, and graphical interfaces. You can use this as a solid example to work on your own product add-in or simply use it for risk analysis for different projects.
Power Shortages
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Statistical Analysis, Data Visualization, Data Simulation
Another beginner-friendly project idea is to forecast the power a company can generate for planned or unplanned outages. You should conduct a statistical analysis of the previous shortages and the processes leading to the shortages. The analysis should also feature new trends to forecast power generation and the probability of occurrence.
Gas Leakage
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Risk Management, Data Simulation
This project will help you develop skills in risk analysis. You can work on this project to develop risk analyst techniques, tools, and processes. You’ll need to gather data from past gas leaks, input the contributing circumstances, environmental influences, and frequency. Once the data has been input, you’ll simulate your findings over an extended period and create a risk model.
Pharma Finance
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Risk Management, Data Visualization
This is a quantitative risk analysis project that will tackle diagnostics, critical care, and drug manufacturing. As part of the project, you will handle time series forecasting, fitting distributions, and alternative evaluations. As part of the risk management process, you’ll determine the impact of risks through a simulation software of risk analyzer.
Best Intermediate Risk Analysis In Excel Project Ideas
Once you have obtained basic skills and knowledge in risk analysis in Excel, you can proceed to intermediate projects. These intermediate projects listed below are best suited for aspiring professionals in the field who have at least a basic knowledge of Excel or risk analysis.
Pension Fund Analysis
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Visualization, Statistical Language
You can work on a project featuring pension fund analysis. In this project, you will develop a simulation model to predict the distribution of assets in a portfolio of your choosing. You can also feature growth in asset value, generation of revenue, catastrophic risks, and portfolio depletion.
Airport Parking Rates
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Visualization, Statistical Language
Select an airport of your liking and proceed to determine the optimum price levels. The project can investigate parking lot fees that will increase the profitability of the airport. You should also take into account the type of commuter, provider, and types of risks that are generally imposed.
Private Equity
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Statistical Analysis
You can delve deeper into practical risk analysis using Excel by tackling private equity firms. Base your project on quantitative risk analysis. You can research their investments and the funders and business models involved to perform an analysis of risk probability.
Metal Inventory
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Visualization, Statistical Language
Pursue a project based on an inventory of precious metals and increase your intermediate skills in Excel. You can use existing data to estimate the value and uncertainty of finding the metal. This means you will need a valuation model, sample plan with different stages, and a risk response plan.
Steel Manufacturing
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Visualization, Statistical Language
This is an intermediate project that will require you to take into account raw material, human resources, and demand levels of steel. The project will feature various risk-based evaluations and techniques. Specifically, you’ll focus on production costs, perform cash flow risk analysis, and determine business decision-makers that impact project success.
Advanced Risk Analysis In Excel Project Ideas
Pursuing advanced risk analysis in Excel projects will set you apart from entry-level professionals in the field. These advanced projects require a high level of knowledge and expertise in analyzing and presenting sound decisions. The projects listed below will advance your risk analysis skills and provide you with excellent portfolio projects.
A Risk Assessment Methodology and Excel Tool for Acquisition Programs
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Risk Management, Data Simulation
This project is based on risk assessment methodologies. You’ll need to assess the valuation of integration issues that influence cost increase, schedule growth, and program performance. You’ll use an assessor tool to measure and evaluate system integration risk.
Introduction to Monte Carlo Simulation in Excel
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Simulation, Statistical Tools
Monte Carlo is used in a number of established companies. General Motors, Proctor and Gamble, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Sears are some of the companies relying on Monte Carlo for decision making. They use the software for determining which products should be released in the market and predicting purchasing costs.
They also rely on them to forecast net income and determine the number of units of product lines. In this project, you will learn how to simulate values of random variables, and consequent actions after typing =RANDO() in a cell. You will also master how to work with a normal random variable to simulate values.
Risk Analysis of Ecommerce Business Model
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Risk Management, Data Simulation, Data Visualization
This project requires you to design a simple ecommerce business model or use an existing example. You’ll need to collect data on similar ecommerce businesses and input your findings of production costs, taxes, website or application subscription fees, revenue, employees’ salaries, and anything else that can help you determine acceptable risk for your business model.
Commodity Pricing Models
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Visualization
In this project, you will tackle financial risk modeling to calculate the volatility of a commodity. Through the project, you will learn the ins and outs of asset-liability management and assumptions of maturity and liquidity gaps. You will also discover the interest rate models in Excel. Calculating value at risk, correlation, and market risk metrics will also be included in the project.
Engineering Risk Analysis
- Risk Analysis In Excel Skills Practiced: Data Visualization, Risk Management
You can use this project idea to gauge the risks involved in engineering. Through Microsoft Excel, you can assess the system used in engineering to inform your decisions. For instance, you can analyze information regarding the structure, costs, and durability of engineering projects.
Risk Analysis In Excel Starter Project Templates
You do not need to conduct risk analysis from scratch. There are pre-existing project templates available to ease your work. These templates will save you the time and resources required to complete a particular project. Below you will find the best risk analysis in Excel starter project templates.
- 3×3 Risk Matrix Template. This is an excellent template that is simple to edit. The template features three different levels to identify the intensity and likelihood of risks. You will find low, medium, and high values to help you determine the risks that require your immediate attention.
- Risk assessment template Excel. This template is mainly used for project risk analysis, generally for project planning. Whether you are working on single or multiple projects, it is important to have a risk assessment template to manage risks with no additional costs.
- Risk analysis templates (Excel). This template features multiple segments to help you arrive at credible conclusions that provide business intelligence.
- Risk assessment Excel template. For $59, you can access this risk assessment Excel template to help you in your project or work. To make things easier, you will have one template featuring sample data and another empty to fill in your data.
- Business Risk Analysis Excel Template. This template helps identify potential threats that may affect the business objectives or projects. Through it, you will get automated updates in your graphs, maps, and charts as you key in new data. It will help in gauging the probability and degree of risk.
Next Steps: Start Organizing Your Risk Analysis In Excel Portfolio
Competing risk analysis in Excel projects will set you apart from other job candidates. It showcases your capabilities and proves to employers that you can handle the relevant job duties. Below are some factors to consider as you organize your professional portfolio.
Highlight Your Accomplishments
Always include projects that showcase your best abilities in risk analysis in Excel. These projects can be highly valuable during the shortlisting process. You will find that recruiters always check the skills, education, experience, and past achievements of a candidate before hiring them. Your portfolio is often your only shot at proving your suitability for the role.
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Add Documentation
To boost your portfolio, you should consider adding information to each project featured. This information can include your risk analysis process, project purpose, and any other information you would want the employer to know. Keep in mind, you’ll often hand over your portfolio without a chance to explain what’s in it. For this reason, add whatever information you want them to know.
Simplicity is Key
Your portfolio should be neat and simple. Instead of adding every project you’ve ever completed, you might consider only adding your best work. The work you decide to include should be organized by purpose, type of risk analysis, or project theme. You should also include neat and simple documentation so employers can easily understand your projects.
Risk Analysis In Excel Projects FAQ
Risk analysis features three main processes, including risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. Each risk assessment phase addresses a particular issue. Risk identification enables professionals to pinpoint issues preventing an organization from reaching its goals. Risk analysis involves identifying the sources of the risk. Risk evaluation addresses each risk factor and formulates solutions.
You can learn risk analysis in Excel by attending an online course, workshop, training, or seminar. There are professionals who prefer self-study and hence rely on Excel books. There are also online Excel tutorials that are beneficial for additional information.
There are multiple tools and techniques used in risk analysis. The most common are brainstorming, the Delphi technique, root cause analysis, SWOT, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Bowtie model, and decision tree.
The other functions of Excel are data entry, data management, accounting, financial analysis, and time management. Excel is also used in task management, financial modeling, and Customer Relationship Management. However, the primary function of Excel is organizing data to perform financial analysis for companies.
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