When making judgments, people rely on heuristics or shortcuts that can lead them to good solutions. In certain situations, however, these techniques can cause inconsistencies and promote cognitive biases. Referring to software processes improvement initiatives, it is important that the practices, techniques, methods and tools suggested for the processes provide mechanisms to support decision-making, thus minimizing the negative effects of such biases. This paper, based on a qualitative research applied in two IT companies in Brazil and Portugal, aims to examine eight biases: anchoring bias, exposure effect, hindsight bias, halo effect, planning fallacy, sunk-cost fallacy, availability-related bias, and Parkinson´s law effect. Through semi-structured interviews with project managers (PMs), roots causes were identified for each bias, as well as methods and tools used to minimize its negative effects, which were consolidated into a concepts map. Agile practices and knowledge management activities were cited as essential in software processes focusing on decision-making improvement
