According to wikipedia:

Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily, or “anchor,” on one trait or piece of information when making decisions.

This is a dangerous bias that can bite you when you are estimating tasks or stories in an Agile environment. I am even wondering if this plays a role when you are poker planning, and how much this influences your decisions from the get go.

Anyway, this article goes into detailing the anchoring effect and the “You are not so smart” blog is providing insights on common human behavior that plays an important role in software development.

While the phenomenon is well-known, I am wondering what a team can do about it. How can you overcome its nefarious effect and also how do you measure its effect in the long run.

[via You are not so smart]

Original photo by Plbmak

You may have seen the video below as it was quite popular in the last few weeks. If not, I really encourage you to watch it as it is food for thought if you hold a job where you have to manage other individuals.