Projects tend to exceed planned timelines and budgets. One reason may
be that potential project risks are insufficiently reflected in anticipations of project
success. Furthermore, project managers’ overconfidence may lead them to assess
risk in a biased manner. The present study examines how risk assessment relates to
overall anticipated project success and how overconfidence on the part of project
managers influences such assessments. We assume that project managers’ risk
awareness serves as a mediator between overconfidence and risk assessment. To
observe the planning behavior of 204 project managers, we used a standardized,
case-based survey. The results show that overconfidence reduces risk awareness
among project managers, leading them to assess risks more optimistically and come
to more positive conclusions about anticipated project success. When judging
project success, project managers only consider the probability of a risk occurring;
they do not factor in the impact of said risks on project success should the risks
arise. Risks thus seem to be insufficiently reflected in anticipations of project success
which might be a reason for high failure rates of projects.