You might get a better answer by reading a book on business management. If you are asking this question for a classroom assignment then I would strongly recommend getting a formal answer from a business management text book.
From a practical side I'll say that a useful answer depends on the culture of the group using the terms. It seems to me that 'issues' could include 'risks', so 'risks' would be a subset of 'issues'.
If you want to say that issues is not a perfect synonym for risks, again depending on what the people in the conversation believe, then issues are any potential problems while risks are potential causes of calamity. For instance an issue might be that there is not enough time to complete the project before it 'has' to be deployed. You would, therefore, have to consider whether to get the project partially functional by the deadline and deploy that partial solution on time or to just completely slip the deadline and deploy a fully functional product when it is available. On the other hand a risk might be known or unknown bugs in the technology used to implement the project. A couple examples might be that a bit of software used to create the project might have a bug adding numbers and the project is focused on adding numbers, or a network centered project would be susceptible to vulerabilities in networking technology.
Another example in the area of software development could be that an issue would be concern over whether the end user interface would be confusing and likely to cause delays and mistakes from the end users while a risk might be that unauthorized people might be able to see and alter application data.
I think in the end that the distiction between risks and issues is dependent on the culture of the group discussing these subjects.
There are no standard definitions of these terms, especially in relation to each other. In fact, I don't hear the terms "risk" and "project issues" in the same conversation.
This does look an awful lot like a homework assignment, because I can't imagine any other place where this particular question could have arisen.
I think you're stuck. You may get a lot of good definitions from this crowd, but there's very little chance that any one of them will be the precise one that your instructor is looking for.
If by some quirk this is really not a homework assignment, then I can't imagine the context of the question. The answer you've already gotten looks good enough for me.
this looks like homework to me too. if so, the answer is somewhere in your notes or the text. the other posts are correct, there is no fixed definition of these terms- find out what the instructor wants and repeat it back. having said that, i will add my own definition: risk is an unknown with a potentially fatal impact, issue is a decision point.
Project risks are something that can derail your project if they arent mitigated. Issues are small hinderences that are usually overcome by dicussions. Let me illustrate with examples.
Not getting a singn off for the use cases within the stipulated time is an issue.
Your application supporting 2 decimals for amount is a risk if you happen to have a client in Oman (The rial requires 3 decimal places)
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Defining Issues & Risks