What is Expert Judgment in Project Management?

Expert judgment definition: What does expert judgment in project management mean?

Expert judgment is a technique in the project planning process that refers to making a judgment based on skill, expertise, or specialized knowledge in a particular area. The expertise can be based on an individual’s training or educational background, career experience, or knowledge of the product/market. 

This expertise can come from: 

• A member of the project team 
• A project stakeholder 
• Consultants 
• Subject matter experts 
• The project manager, etc.

Expert judgment can help when forming strategies around threat and risk response. It can also identify project opportunities. While expert judgment estimation is useful in the planning process, it is not a flawless technique.

Firstly, any number of biases can influence the judgment. In “Expert Judgment in Project Management: Narrowing the Theory-Practice Gap”, the author identifies overconfidence as “one of the most common forms of cognitive bias in experts.” 

Additionally, expert judgment does not always rely on empirical evidence, making it inherently flawed as it pertains to fact-based decision-making.

Expert judgment techniques

Below is an accepted framework for eliciting expert judgment:

1. Frame the problem
2. Plan the elicitation
3. Select the experts
4. Train the experts
5. Elicit judgments
6. Analyze/Aggregate judgment
7. Document/communicate results

Jørgensen recommends asking for justification from experts and choosing experts with experience on similar projects in his article, "Practical Guidelines for Expert-Judgment-Based Software Effort Estimation".

Creating a list of known experts available to offer their skills can also make it easier to elicit judgments. If possible, expert judgment should be used alongside other forms of information and data to arrive at an aggregate judgment.