Barriers against effective responses to early warning signs in projects

• We investigate project/ project organization factors that influence the effectiveness of responses to early warning signs.
• We perform a literature review on possible barriers against effective responses to early warning signs in projects.
• We perform a survey in order to examine the obstacles against effective responses to early warning signs in practice.
• We clarify the mentality filter in Ansoff’s management model in order to better define the process of creation of barriers.

It is a major challenge for project organizations to react sufficiently quickly to the identified early warning signs of project problems in order to avoid the occurrence of those problems. This article investigates project and project organization specifications that influence the effectiveness of responses to early warning signs in projects. Based on a survey of Norwegian project managers or leaders' approaches to responding to such signs, this study reveals that there are specific barriers to their ability to respond to identified early warning signs. Barriers may develop due to organizational factors, such as project managers' optimism bias, the normalization of deviance within an organization, and the lack of an outside view. They can also develop due to projects' complexity. The authors elaborate on Ansoff's management model by clarifying the mentality filter in order to better define the procedure whereby obstructions are created.