Software project management is becoming an increasingly critical task in many organizations. In this study, the authors investigate the heuristics employed to cope with the problems of poor estimation and poor visibility and feedback that hamper software project planning and control. Using a laboratory experiment in which subjects managed a simulated software development project, the authors build on the concept of “anchor dragging”; that is, people make estimates by starting from an initial value that is adjusted to yield the final answers.

In their analysis, the authors conclude that this anchoring persists over time and is not mitigated by feedback. In other words, if you start with a bad estimate, it becomes difficult to correct that estimate, even with good information.

Overall, this paper would be of interest to other researchers on poor software estimating. Practitioners, however, after reading this paper, may remain uncertain of the purpose and utility of such research.