Project Scheduling is not just science and rationality. Many psychological factors come into play when designing a Project schedule and then during Project execution that greatly influence events and outcomes. Some of these are compounded by intrinsic weaknesses of the scheduling approaches and methods used. Our new White Paper 2016-08 ‘What the Psychological Factors At Work in Scheduling Are, and How They Affect Schedule Optimism’ detail those issues.

The main psychological factors at work include:

• Parkinson’s law,
• Student’s syndrome,
• Commitment syndrome,
• Planning Fallacy,
• Lack of calibration of estimates.

Psychological factors play a decisive role in actual Project Scheduling and execution. Neglecting them is often disastrous, in particular because the net effect is often an optimistic initial plan, which subsequently progressively slips into delays.

Prevention methods must be implemented at the planning stage, which need to take into account whether familiar tasks or new tasks are being discussed. During Project execution, specific methods such as adequate project buffers, virtual float elimination and float monitoring, will also help minimize the effect of these psychological factors.

Read our new White Paper 2016-08 ‘What the Psychological Factors At Work in Scheduling Are, and How They Affect Schedule Optimism’ to get a grip on these issues.

At the end of the day, always remember that Projects are a Human Adventure!