
Here’s a quick history on the study of the planning fallacy in psychology and behavioral economics. By taking a more realistic view of the costs, risks, and benefits involved, you can make better decisions and achieve better project results. The planning fallacy can be addressed by taking a more realistic approach to estimating future actions and not dismissing negative information when making decisions. Another reason is that people tend to focus on successful examples of similar projects rather than looking at all the data objectively. One reason for the planning fallacy is that people often base their estimates on optimistic scenarios rather than considering worst-case scenarios. This can ultimately have a negative effect on projects, preventing teams from meeting objectives according to their planned trajectory. It has been shown to impact individuals as well as organizations and can lead to sub-optimal decision-making.

The planning fallacy is a cognitive bias that describes people’s tendency to underestimate the amount of time, costs, and risks of future actions while overestimating the benefits of those actions. Get started What is the planning fallacy? We’ll also address some FAQs about the planning fallacy in project management.
#Project management dangers of over optimism how to#
This article explores what the planning fallacy is, why you should take it into consideration when planning future tasks, and how to mitigate its negative impact on projects. This is a well-known and scientifically studied phenomenon - it’s called the planning fallacy. While this might sound like a made-up scenario that doesn’t apply to you or people in general, it isn’t. As Daniel Kahneman, cognitive bias researcher, puts it: “People who are in a good mood are more likely to let their biases affect their thinking.” Learn more about the planning fallacy from.

But they may be paying less attention to the negative aspects such as cost, risk, time, or failures on similar tasks from the past.

When a team starts to plan a project, they might be thinking about the magnificently beneficial impact that the endeavor will have. If they were, they probably wouldn’t be planning the project in the first place, right? New projects give rise to a great deal of enthusiasm and this applies to both the individual and organizational levels. New projects spark a great deal of excitement and optimism, and when imagining reaching the end goal, people aren’t usually pessimistic about them.
