The adage goes that, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Furthermore, project teams cannot reasonably measure uncertainty if it is not clearly described. Additionally, the worthiness of an entire risk management program is in jeopardy if team members do not have faith that they are working to manage risks that matter.

This paper proposes a three-step test that decision and risk management (DRM) practitioners can employ to verify risk relevance. This simple work process, focusing on authenticity, topicality and conformability, will help project teams overcome many of the pitfalls encountered when attempting to either perform realistic quantitative risk assessments, make risk-informed decisions or facilitate a long-term continuous risk management program.