Are the Experts Really Experts? a Cognitive Ergonomics Investigation for Project Estimations
Abstract
Uniqueness is a major characteristic of any project systems. Hence it is virtually in-feasible for project analysts to utilize data from past projects as references for subsequent project planning and scheduling. Most project analysts would then depend on intuition, gut feeling and experiences to develop quantitative models for project scheduling and analysis which, according to past studies, is prone towards systematic errors. This study attempts to investigate the perfor-mance of both ‘experts’ and ‘non-experts’ when utilizing their cognitive capability to estimate pro-ject durations in group/non-group settings. A cognitive ergonomics perspective -which views human capability to make judgment as rationally bounded - is utilized in this investigation. An empirical approach is used to inquiry data from ‘projects’ on which ‘experts’ and ‘non-experts’ are required to provide prior estimate on project durations. The estimates are then gauged against the actual duration. Results show that some systematic cognitive judgmental errors (biases) are observable for both experts and non-experts. The identified biases include: anchoring bias as well as accuracy bias.Metrics
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Â