Single-Loop Project Controls: Reigning Paradigms or Straitjackets?

This article reports on the results from an ongoing research program to study the role mental models play in project decision making. Project management belongs to the class of multiloop nonlinear feedback systems, but most managers do not see it that way. Our experimental results suggest that managers adopt simplistic single-loop views of causality, ignore multiple feedback interactions, and are insensitive to nonlinearities. Specifically, the article examines single-loop models of project planning and control, discusses their limitations, and proposes tools to address them.