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Working paper
Double Whammy – How ICT Projects are Fooled by Randomness and Screwed by Political Intent
In: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7139e1c6-1884-4563-807e-810715e78ce5
The Iron Triangle formulates the holy trinity of objectives of project management – cost, schedule, and benefits. As our previous research has shown, ICT projects deviate from their initial cost estimate by more than 10% in 8 out of 10 cases. Academic research has argued that Optimism Bias and Black Swan Blindness cause forecasts to fall short of actual costs. Firstly, optimism bias has been linked to effects of deception and delusion, which is caused by taking the inside-view and ignoring distributional information when making decisions. Secondly, we argued before that Black Swan Blindness makes decision-makers ignore outlying events even if decisions and judgements are based on the outside view. Using a sample of 1,471 ICT projects with a total value of USD 241 billion – we answer the question: Can we show the different effects of Normal Performance, Delusion, and Deception? We calculated the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of (actual-forecast)⁄forecast. Our results show that the CDF changes at two tipping points – the first one transforms an exponential function into a Gaussian bell curve. The second tipping point transforms the bell curve into a power law distribution with the power of 2. We argue that these results show that project performance up to the first tipping point is politically motivated and project performance above the second tipping point indicates that project managers and decision-makers are fooled by random outliers, because they are blind to thick tails. We then show that Black Swan ICT projects are a significant source of uncertainty to an organisation and that management needs to be aware of. Finally, we draw implications about the underlying generative processes that lead to power law behaviour, which might help to further understand the pitfalls and shortcomings of cost and cost risk management in ICT projects.
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Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier than You Think
In: Harvard Business Review, Band 89, Heft 9
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Working paper
Double Whammy – How ICT Projects Are Fooled by Randomness and Screwed by Political Intent
In: Saïd Business School Working Papers, Oxford: University of Oxford 34 pp.
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Working paper
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Working paper
Double whammy – how ICT projects are fooled by randomness and screwed by political intent
The Iron Triangle formulates the holy trinity of objectives of project management – cost, schedule, and benefits. As our previous research has shown, ICT projects deviate from their initial cost estimate by more than 10% in 8 out of 10 cases. Academic research has argued that Optimism Bias and Black Swan Blindness cause forecasts to fall short of actual costs. Firstly, optimism bias has been linked to effects of deception and delusion, which is caused by taking the inside-view and ignoring distributional information when making decisions. Secondly, we argued before that Black Swan Blindness makes decision-makers ignore outlying events even if decisions and judgements are based on the outside view. Using a sample of 1,471 ICT projects with a total value of USD 241 billion – we answer the question: Can we show the different effects of Normal Performance, Delusion, and Deception? We calculated the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of (actual-forecast)⁄forecast. Our results show that the CDF changes at two tipping points – the first one transforms an exponential function into a Gaussian bell curve. The second tipping point transforms the bell curve into a power law distribution with the power of 2. We argue that these results show that project performance up to the first tipping point is politically motivated and project performance above the second tipping point indicates that project managers and decision-makers are fooled by random outliers, because they are blind to thick tails. We then show that Black Swan ICT projects are a significant source of uncertainty to an organisation and that management needs to be aware of. Finally, we draw implications about the underlying generative processes that lead to power law behaviour, which might help to further understand the pitfalls and shortcomings of cost and cost risk management in ICT projects.
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Regression to the Tail: Why the Olympics Blow Up
In: Flyvbjerg, Bent, Alexander Budzier, and Daniel Lunn, forthcoming, "Regression to the Tail: Why the Olympics Blow Up," accepted for publication, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, vol. 53, no. 2, Mar. 2021, pp. 233–260.
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The Oxford Olympics Study 2016: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games
In: Said Business School WP 2016-20
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Report to the Independent Board Committee
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Does infrastructure investment lead to economic growth or economic fragility? Evidence from China
In: Oxford review of economic policy, Band 32, Heft 3, S. 360-390
ISSN: 1460-2121
Does Infrastructure Investment Lead to Economic Growth or Economic Fragility? Evidence from China
In: Atif Ansar, Bent Flyvbjerg, Alexander Budzier, and Daniel Lunn, 2016, 'Does Infrastructure Investment Lead to Economic Growth or Economic Fragility? Evidence from China,' Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol. 32, no. 3, autumn, pp. 360–390. DOI: 10.1093/oxrep/grw022.
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