- ### __Bias : __ - Law of the instrument - ### __Definition : __ - An over-reliance on a familiar tool or methods, ignoring or under-valuing alternative approaches. - ### __OODA Class : __ - Orient Phase - ### __OODA Subclass : __ - Previous knowledge/experience - ### __Classification Reasoning : __ - As the definition suggests, this bias leads to an over-reliance on familiar tools and methodologies. The familiarity with tools is due to previous experience in using them which creates a comfort zone leading to a higher tendency to use them. - ### __Example : __ - Selection of continuous integration tool: There are many tools for continuous integration available in the market. Jenkins being one of the most popular CI tools would be the preferred choice of many without other alternatives such as Travis, Bitbucket Pipelines, GitLab CI and others being justly considered. - ### __Impact : __ - Overly relying on tried and tested methodology leads to a one size fit all approach which does not work in every context. Moreover, it restricts innovation as new technologies with different approaches are not considered. - ### __Debiasing Techniques : __ - As an initial step, conduct brainstorming sessions and create a list of alternatives based on inputs from all members of the team as well as some external sources. Rank the alternatives based on educated discussions. Based on the time constraints, conduct some proof of concepts if feasible to fairly compare all the options. - ### __Related Biases : __ - [[Functional Fixedness (Bias)]] - [[Mere exposure effect (Bias)]]