Cognitive biases

What we get wrong when we look, and how to see it in time: the biases that lie in wait for IT project delivery and team management.

A cognitive bias is a systematic and predictable error of judgement — not an oversight, not bad faith. IT projects and team management combine the conditions where biases strike: uncertainty, pressure, group decisions, late feedback. This section offers one page per bias, written to be applied the very next day.

Each page follows the same outline: definition, mechanism, where you meet it, a sourced famous case, warning signs, avoidance reflexes, uses of AI, and limits. Pages are grouped by family: project delivery, management, cross-cutting biases, then the methods that serve as countermeasures.

Where to start? Read Understanding biases first to learn how to read the pages (frequency, domains, AI help), then browse the map of links to see how biases combine.

Understanding biasesWhat a cognitive bias is, why it hits projects and management in particular, how to read the entries in this section, and how to guard against biases without fooling yourself.Map of linksAll the site's biases and their relationships (combines with, neighbor, counterweight), grouped by family, with filters by family, link type and frequency.Where do we meet them?Biases sorted by work situation: estimating, steering committee, hiring, code review, negotiation, post-mortem…The most frequentCognitive biases ranked by frequency in IT project delivery and team management, from ubiquitous to rare.Anti-bias toolboxChecklists by moment of the project or of management: before estimating, before a go / no-go, in committee, for hiring, for design, after an incident.GlossaryAlphabetical index of all the site's entries on biases, effects, heuristics and empirical laws, with a one-sentence definition of each.In IT project deliveryEstimating, deciding, designing, understanding the need: project biases.27 pages In team managementEvaluating, recruiting, giving feedback, leading a group: management biases.14 pages Cross-cutting biasesThe biases found in projects and in management alike.19 pages Countermeasures and methodsThe methods that neutralise biases: pre-mortem, outside view, devil's advocate.3 pages