Casting a long shadow: On the death and abiding influence of Daniel Kahneman in shaping project management theory and practice

• Essay offers festschrift on Daniel Kahneman's contributions to project management • Essay reflects on why Kahneman's work resonates within project management • Essay takes stock on Kahneman's work on judgment and decision-making under risk • Essay takes stock on Kahneman's work on bias, error and noise • Essay takes stock on Kahneman's work on the Planning Fallacy With the recent passing of Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winner, the opportunity to offer reflection on his contributions to project management theory and practice is timely. Indeed, while Kahneman himself is no longer with us, his ideas are long lived in the project management field. This essay is offered as a festschrift and is accompanied by invited commentaries. We take stock of Kahneman's work on judgment and decision-making under risk; bias, error and noise; and the Planning Fallacy. We note that much of his work served as a foreshadowing of current scholarship and avenues for exploration in project management; everything from topics such as project behavior to causes and effects of project performance, not to mention AI as well as happiness and well-being in projects. We argue that Kahneman's ideas at the intersection of psychology and economics did not so much revolutionize as upend our understanding of project management.