کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
275744 | 1429674 | 2015 | 15 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
• Over-requirement is a major risk in software development projects.
• We investigated developers' emotional involvement as a source of over-requirement.
• The experiment involved the specification of a nice-to-have software feature.
• The endowment, IKEA, and I-designed-it-myself behavioral effects were manipulated.
• We found that behavioral effects influence the valuation of software features.
One of the major risks associated with software development is related to the phenomenon of over-requirement. Also known as over-specification and gold-plating, over-requirement is manifested when a product or a service is specified beyond the actual needs of the customer or the market. In the software development context, we argue in this work that over-requirement is due partially to the emotional involvement of developers with the software features they specify. Similar involvement has been demonstrated for physical items as a result of the endowment, IKEA, and I-designed-it-myself behavioral effects, when people come to overvalue items they possess or self-create. To explore these behavioral effects and the interactions among them in the context of software development, we conducted an experiment in which over 200 participants were asked to specify a nice-to-have software feature. Our results confirm the existence of these behavioral effects in software development and their influence on over-requirement. The findings contribute to theory by explaining the over-requirement phenomenon and by providing insights into behavioral effects in the context of software development. Also practically relevant, the findings can alert managers of software projects to the over-requirement risk evoked by the behavioral effects explored in this study.
Journal: International Journal of Project Management - Volume 33, Issue 2, February 2015, Pages 380–394