Keeping track of all the information you’re gathering will go a long way to making your risk assessment a success. Keep the following points in mind so you can put the information you gather to work.

• Think more is better and gather whatever information you can.
• Write for someone else and don’t assume you will remember what you’re abbreviations mean when you look at them later on.
• Cross reference and be explicit when linking two documents or referring to something else. Again, these links won’t be as obvious in the future.
• Keep note of useful quotes but use these anonymously.
• Back everything up.
• Identify and collate themes as you go. This helps you track things later on but you are also starting to identify the components of the risk assessment.

This will seem like an irrelevant distraction until you see the size and scope of the information you are going to be managing. Keeping control of the data will ensure you don’t have to repeat a search or interview and your assessment will be more complete for it.