A risk assessment is a fundamental activity when planning the removal of a service. It helps to identify potential negative impacts, such as disruption to dependent services, data loss, or security vulnerabilities. By understanding these risks in advance, the deployment team can create mitigation plans to ensure the removal process is controlled and causes minimal disruption to the business and its users. This proactive approach is central to effective deployment management.

B. Deploying new features simultaneously introduces additional complexity and risk, directly contradicting the goal of minimal disruption during a service removal.

C. Ignoring user feedback is a poor practice that prevents the team from understanding real-world dependencies and the potential impact of the removal.

D. A strict timeline without flexibility is unrealistic, as unforeseen issues often arise during decommissioning; adaptability is key to managing these issues effectively.

1. AXELOS. (2021). ITIL® 4 Practitioner: Deployment Management. PeopleCert. Section 4.3.5, "Planning for removal and archiving," emphasizes the need to plan for decommissioning, which inherently includes assessing the risks of removal.

2. AXELOS. (2020). ITIL® 4: Create, Deliver and Support. TSO (The Stationery Office). Section 5.2.10, "Service decommissioning," discusses the importance of a planned and controlled process to retire services, minimizing business risk.