Inventory, Classification and Risk Tools

All courses / Tools / Module 3 / Chapter 7

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

Draft an inventory entry and a risk register entry for one AI system with owner, review period and reopening triggers.
Explain how the risk-tiering questionnaire, the classification policy and the risk appetite statement together produce a tier and a decision.
Write an exception record with a compensating control, an expiry and renewal evidence.
Identify the unit of inventory and the primary record for each usage mode.

Key concepts

AI system inventory entry: A descriptor of one AI system, from AI Governance, Chapter 9, from which the organisation's inventory and a public register entry are generated. The deployment gate refuses status deployed for a high-risk entry without an EU database identifier.
Usage-mode register: A YAML register beside the inventory that lists use cases by usage mode with a baseline status per control. It catches uses in Modes 0 to 3 that never pass through a procurement of an AI system.
Risk register entry: A version-controlled entry, family RISK, that links a hazard to controls, assessments and the triggers that reopen it. An entry whose review period has passed is stale and is treated as an open risk.
Exception record: An expiring exception from The Transformed Security Architect, Chapter 17, with owner, compensating control and the evidence required to renew. The chapter's defaults are 90 days at tier 2 and 180 days at tier 3, to be adapted.
AI Decision Record as structured data: The machine-readable YAML form of the AIDR from AI Platform and Security, read by pipelines. A field that does not apply is marked not applicable with a reason, and the registry refuses to promote a model whose system has no accepted record.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Interactive exercise 1 · Put in order

The order in which the records are made

Put the steps in the order in which Chapter 7 says the records of an AI system are made.

Interactive exercise 2 · Match

Records of Chapter 7 by identifier

Match each identifier family with the record it names in the chapter.

Teaching plan

15 min	Present Figure 7.1, from intake to decision record, and the two rules that recur: stale records count as open risks, and the record, not a meeting, carries the decision.
20 min	Walk the Nordvik Region benefits-triage example through the inventory entry and the risk-tiering questionnaire, then read the register entry RISK-2026-014 of a benefits eligibility decision-support system. Participants name the basis cited for each answer.
15 min	Teach exceptions and decision records: read EXC-NR-0007, the exception gate rule and the excerpt of AIDR-0030. Show the table of unit of inventory and primary record per mode.
30 min	Exercise: participants produce the record chain for one system of their own, from inventory entry to exception.
10 min	Peer check: each pair looks for a record without an owner, a review date or a trigger in the other's chain.

Discussion

The substantial-modification rule does not decide that a change is a substantial modification; it decides that a human must make the judgement. Why is that division of work the right one?
The low tiers in Modes 0 to 3 hold only while the permitted uses hold. How does an excluded-uses list make drift visible, and who should watch for it?
Hansa Mutual classifies the same system once per regime in the countries where it operates. What does that do to the design of a register entry?

Written exercise

Exercise · 30 minutes

The record chain for one AI system

Choose one AI system in your own organisation, or the benefits-triage system of Nordvik Region. Write four short records for it in the forms of the chapter. First, an inventory entry with intended purpose, owner, role under the AI Act, risk tier, human oversight and linked assessments. Second, a risk register entry with one hazard, harm categories, controls, owner, review period and at least three triggers that reopen it. Third, an exception record for one control that cannot be met today, with reason, compensating control, expiry and what a renewal must attach. Fourth, the fields of the AI Decision Record that state intended and prohibited uses and retirement criteria.

Deliverable: Four linked records for one system: inventory entry, risk register entry, exception record and the key fields of an AI Decision Record, each with owner and dates.

Your work

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

Why does every answer in the risk-tiering questionnaire carry a legal reference?
Show the answer
D. So that a reviewer challenges the basis of an answer rather than the conclusion
The questionnaire walks the AI Act decision tree with a legal basis stated for every answer. The chapter says every answer carries a reference so that a reviewer challenges the basis rather than the conclusion.
What does the exception gate rule of The Transformed Security Architect do?
Show the answer
A. It denies a change that relies on an exception whose expiry has passed
The rule is the enforcement half of the exception record: an eight-line Rego rule that denies a change relying on an expired exception. The book calls it the smallest useful gate rule.
What is the unit of inventory for Mode 0 Ambient AI in the chapter's table?
Show the answer
B. Each supplier feature that is switched on
For Mode 0 the unit is each supplier feature, recorded in a supplier-feature register, with an AIDR for each feature that processes personal or confidential data. The tenant deployment is the unit for Mode 2.