---
title: "Contributing factor"
description: "A property of a system or its context (autonomy, exposure, reversibility, vulnerable groups, data sensitivity, opacity) that moves the likelihood or severity of a risk without creating it."
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/contributing-factor
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-24
---

# Contributing factor

A property of a system or its context (autonomy, exposure, reversibility, vulnerable groups, data sensitivity, opacity) that moves the likelihood or severity of a risk without creating it [1]. It is captured as registry fields at intake so a policy can compute the tier.

- Developed in: [ch. 13, Contributing factors and the use-case risk profile](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/risk-management#contributing-factors-and-the-use-case-risk-profile)
- Chapters: [ch. 13, Risk Management](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/risk-management)
- Contrast with: [Risk source](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/risk-source)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-contributing-factor

## Sources

[1] Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), NIST AI 100-1 (risk tolerance and residual risk; seven trustworthy characteristics; transparency answers "what happened", explainability "how", interpretability "why"; MAP 1.1 intended purposes; MANAGE 1.1 go/no-go determination; profiles). NIST. 2023-01-26. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.AI.100-1 (verified: primary)