Systematic Biases and Culture in Project Failures

Abstract

Project success rates have improved, and much of the credit can be given to the knowledge, practices, and standards that have contributed to the professionalization of the field. Unfortunately, too many failures still occur. Because many of them can be traced to management and decision‐making practices, it might be useful at this stage to explore a set of systematic biases to determine if understanding them can help diagnose and perhaps even prevent failures from occurring. This article begins with a framework identifying the influences on project outcomes, defines the systematic biases that may derail projects, summarizes eight project failures, uses the framework to diagnose those failures, and concludes by suggesting how organizational and project culture may contribute to these very common and natural biases.

The Rational and Behavioral View in Project Management

“…Shore [1] (2008), together with Keil, Depledge, Rai [8] (2007) agree with the point that cognitive biases underlying culture including groupthink, overconfidence, selective perception, illusion of control and so forth plays a significant effect on decision-making process in project management. For example, as stated by Shore [1] (2008), Columbia shuttle project encountered failure on February1, 2003 due to the personal biases behind the politics and culture of NASA, which led to overconfidence and mismanagement. Furthermore, the project leader made false decision due to overly conservatism that overlooked the available data from previous experience.…”

“…As pointed out by Shore [1] (2008), a behavioral view that focuses on how leader makes decisions in the project management and what people or organization "actually" do in the process, which considerably impact the results of project. In terms of how leader makes decisions, there are culture and personal biases to be introduced.…”

“…The paper critically examines the application of rational and behavioral views in response to complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity in modern project management. Some [2] (Ackah, 2016) argue that the rational perspective is the most effective scientific method to provide a guideline for project management, while others [1] (Shore, 2008) contend that the success of project management requires the behavioral view. This paper will suggest that an optimized combination of rational and behavioral standpoints serves best in project management, which is intended to maximize the rate of success about project in different ways.…”

“…It is a rational perspective that mainly focuses on technical aspects of management and the application of models or methodologies involving PMBOK Guide which is the description of what "should" be done from inception to closure in project management [1] ( Shore, 2008). There is, however, a behavioral view that emphasizes on human aspects of management and what people or organization "actually" do [1] (Shore, 2008). The paper critically examines the application of rational and behavioral views in response to complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity in modern project management.…”

An Investigation of Failure in Information Systems Projects: The Case of Jordan

“…There is no single cause of IT project failure, no simple solution but if the various influencing issues are understood and managed, chances of success will increase. According to Barry Shore (2008) understanding early warning signs in the project can improve the project`s chances of not being considered as a failure. Many researchers assumed that if a project`s completion time exceeded its due date, or expenses overran the budget, or outcomes did not fulfill a company's predetermined performance measures, the project was assumed to fail (Garg, P 2010;Nasir & Sahibuddin, 2011;Chou, 2012;Ibrahim, R et al, 2013).…”