Cognitive Biases and Their Influence on Projects

This paper investigates the impact of biases and logical fallacies on outcomes in the context of underground engineering. It examines the decision made by a coal mining contractor to modify excavation equipment that would enable continuous mining capabilities. Established and recent theoretical decision frameworks are reviewed and implemented in this decision analysis, revealing decision oversights and logical fallacies that resulted in project and organisational failure. This paper empirically validates the need for sequential and staged decision frameworks which identify and remediate the impact that biases have on decision processes that influence project outcomes.