TY - JOUR
T1 - Excessive software development
T2 - Practices and penalties
AU - Shmueli, Ofira
AU - Ronen, Boaz
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd, APM and IPMA
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - This study focuses on the tendency to develop software excessively, above and beyond need or available development resources. The literature pays little attention to this issue, overlooking its crucial impact and penalties. Terms used in reference to excessive software development practices include over-requirement, over-specification, over-design, gold-plating, bells-and-whistles, feature creep, scope creep, requirements creep, featuritis, scope overload and over-scoping. Some of these terms share the same meaning, some overlap, some refer to the development phase, and some to the final system. Via a systematic literature search, we first demonstrate the poor state of research about excessive software development practices in the information systems and project management areas. Then, we suggest a framework consolidating the problems associated with excessive software development in three ‘beyond’ categories (beyond needs, beyond resources, beyond plans), describe and analyze their causes, consequences, boundaries and overlapping zones. Finally, we discuss the findings and present directions for future research.
AB - This study focuses on the tendency to develop software excessively, above and beyond need or available development resources. The literature pays little attention to this issue, overlooking its crucial impact and penalties. Terms used in reference to excessive software development practices include over-requirement, over-specification, over-design, gold-plating, bells-and-whistles, feature creep, scope creep, requirements creep, featuritis, scope overload and over-scoping. Some of these terms share the same meaning, some overlap, some refer to the development phase, and some to the final system. Via a systematic literature search, we first demonstrate the poor state of research about excessive software development practices in the information systems and project management areas. Then, we suggest a framework consolidating the problems associated with excessive software development in three ‘beyond’ categories (beyond needs, beyond resources, beyond plans), describe and analyze their causes, consequences, boundaries and overlapping zones. Finally, we discuss the findings and present directions for future research.
KW - Bells-and-whistles
KW - Feature creep
KW - Featuritis
KW - Gold-plating
KW - Mission creep
KW - Over-design
KW - Over-requirement
KW - Over-scoping
KW - Over-specification
KW - Project management
KW - Requirements creep
KW - Scope creep
KW - Scope overload
KW - Software development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84994032209&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.10.002
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AN - SCOPUS:84994032209
SN - 0263-7863
VL - 35
SP - 13
EP - 27
JO - International Journal of Project Management
JF - International Journal of Project Management
IS - 1
ER -