One of the researchers mentioned by another commenter has termed this "strategic misrepresentation":
The first theory Flyvbjerg embraced is called “strategic misrepresentation.” Which is essentially a fancy way of saying that you lie in order to get what you want.
>FLYVBJERG: We’d actually interviewed planners who said that they did this deliberately, that they actually were incentivized to misrepresent the business cases for the projects in their benefit-cost analysis. And they wanted their projects to look good on paper, to increase their chances of getting funded and getting approval for their projects. And they said, “We do this by underestimating the cost and overestimating the benefits, because that gives us a nice high benefit-cost ratio so that we actually get chosen.[1]
I've experience this, but I also think it may depend on the unique culture of individual organizations. Of course, it's likely just one of many factors that ultimately lead to poor planning. The podcast in [1] covers some of them and it's a good listen for anyone interested in public work projects.
The first theory Flyvbjerg embraced is called “strategic misrepresentation.” Which is essentially a fancy way of saying that you lie in order to get what you want.
>FLYVBJERG: We’d actually interviewed planners who said that they did this deliberately, that they actually were incentivized to misrepresent the business cases for the projects in their benefit-cost analysis. And they wanted their projects to look good on paper, to increase their chances of getting funded and getting approval for their projects. And they said, “We do this by underestimating the cost and overestimating the benefits, because that gives us a nice high benefit-cost ratio so that we actually get chosen.[1]
I've experience this, but I also think it may depend on the unique culture of individual organizations. Of course, it's likely just one of many factors that ultimately lead to poor planning. The podcast in [1] covers some of them and it's a good listen for anyone interested in public work projects.
[1] https://freakonomics.com/podcast/heres-why-all-your-projects...