Game developers often find themselves coming up with ideas along the production period of a game varying in size and may go unnoticed or seem insignificant to the scope of the project but in the long run add up to break deadlines, budget and affect the morale and engagement of developers. In the modern game development industry agile development methods have increased in popularity allowing flexibility in the development process. This agile approach has emerged from traditional software development where waterfall development methods are common practice (Kanode and Haddad, 2009). Through in-depth interviews with developers from Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom this study aims to explore how feature creep is perceived by the individual developer and its effect on the day-to-day development. The ambition is to establish whether feature creeping as a phenomenon can be a useful tool for innovation and work culture. / Spelutvecklare får kontinuerligt idéer under produktionen som varierar i storlek och kan gå obemärkta eller anses meningslösa för projektets ramar och över tid och kan påverka deadline, budget, moral och engagemang hos spelutvecklare. I dagens spelindustri har agila arbetsmetoder ökat i popularitet som möjliggör flexibla utvecklingsprocesser. De agila arbetssättet har vuxit fram ur traditionell mjukvaruutveckling där vattenfallsmetoder är ofta förekommit (Kanode och Haddad, 2009). Genom ingående intervjuer med utvecklare från Sverige, Finland och Storbritannien undersöker den här studien hur feature creep upplevs av den enskilda spelutvecklaren och dess effekt på det dagliga utvecklandet i spelbranschen med en ambition att se hur fenomenet feature creep kan vara ett användbart verktyg för innovation och arbetskulturen.

Thesis (MTech (Project Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019 / Scope creep is a common cause of project failures. This results in wastage of money, decreased satisfaction and causes the project value not to be met. Most projects seem to suffer scope creep and stakeholders, and project teams are continuously frustrated by it. Why are the effective means of managing scope seemingly escaping us? There is a lot of literature on the most effective methods of curbing scope creep. Various methodologies and project management software has been developed to deal with the issue of scope creep. However it is still regarded as one of the main challenges facing various projects. One of the active outsourced e-commerce project management companies in Cape Town, South Africa, observed that scope creep was affecting almost every project. Even well-executed e-commerce projects that meet time and budget constraints often fail to meet the expectations of the clients. In most cases the root cause can be traced back to scope issues. It has been observed that almost all e-commerce projects have to deal with scope creep. Project managers, customers and developers do not shoulder all the blame. This research study explores the challenges of managing scope creep. It aims to unveil the extent to which scope creep affects projects, and the underlying challenges of managing scope creep. More and more projects are failing regardless of the documentation, and training programmes on scope management. Perceptions of all the stakeholders are highlighted. The study also seeks to assist project managers on how to avoid scope creep. It has been proven that attempting to avoid it does not eliminate the problem. Therefore, this research study aims to bring about a practical solution to scope creep in e-commerce projects. This research study adopted both a qualitative research approach. Stemming from the findings of this study, recommendations such as employing well trained project managers, who are also trained developers, to assist in scoping the complex projects were made. Clients should also be participants in the scope management initiatives and should be consulted throughout the project. This research study was also done with the intention of assisting Project Management students’ training by contributing to the Project Management body of knowledge. This would help trainers and educators understand the real challenges in the field, and prepare them to provide solutions for future practice.

Introduction - Scope creep is uncontrolled and unauthorized changes to a project, extending the project beyond its initial boundaries. An extensive literature review indicated that scope creep is a common occurrence in projects with dire consequences. There are two dominant perspectives on scope creep. Either it is preventable, or inevitable. Based on these findings, the author seeks to investigate the phenomena by answering the research question of this thesis: Why do project managers have opposing perceptions of scope creep in projects? Purpose - This paper explores the managerial perceptions on the two opposing viewpoints on scope creep and potential variations. No previous studies investigate the phenomena in a matter of perception. The paper aims to open new insights about how project managers perceive scope creep based on their own experiences through project management in practice. Design/methodology/approach - The thesis employs a multiple, cross-sectional and mono-method case study design. A qualitative research method is utilized in combination with interpretative and inductive approaches. Sampling criteria techniques used are purposive and snowballing, focusing on project managers in Norway. Five project managers were interviewed in-depth following an interview guide facilitating semi- structured interviews. The interviews were later translated, transcribed and categorized in a thematic analysis template. Findings - The study’s findings indicate that the opposing managerial perspectives on scope creep are due to a varying degree of knowledge on the phenomena and its definition. Low comprehension of scope creep in project management teams generates ambiguity and uncertainty. Insufficient awareness of scope creep inclines project members to misuse the term, resulting in an inability to detect or discern scope creep from formalized changes to the project scope. The academic debate concerns whether scope creep is preventable or inevitable. This study found that the academic discrepancy is owed to a dissonance between academic project management literature and the real-world experiences from practicing project managers. Research limitations/implications - The paper is limited by investigating scope creep based only on data collected from Norwegian nationals. Furthermore, the sample size of the case study is relatively small. These limitations might inhibit the generalization of findings. Practical implication - The following findings and results aids practicing project managers by highlighting the importance of a clear definition of scope creep. Awareness of scope creep assists project team members to discover unauthorized changes, resulting in proper communication within the project management team concerning rogue changes. Originality/value - The paper examines experienced project managers different perspectives of scope creep from practical applications in the project management field. Keywords - Project Management, Scope Change, Scope Creep, Scope ManagementPaper type - Master's thesis

<p>Today there is an even higher demand on IT-projects success rate compared to a few years ago. IT-projects must be handled more efficiently and result in a more profitable investment. In order to make the handling of IT-projects more efficient and create profitability the developers must have a broad understanding of the IT-projects characteristics and which factors that affect the result of the projects. Changes within IT-projects are often carried out through the development of a system. Since this change is more common when it comes to IT-projects it is important to handle risk and change within these kinds of projects in order to prevent and avoid uncontrolled changes. Our purpose with this thesis is to investigate if change is a problem in IT-projects. Thereafter we identify and examine procedures to avoid uncontrolled changes within IT-projects and to prevent an unplanned expansion of the project scope. The thesis also results in a method of how this change can be controlled. The thesis has been conducted by studying theory about IT-projects, system development and change management. Further on a qualitative study has been conducted where three persons from different system development companies has been interviewed. After an analysis of the theoretical framework and the empirical research a method has been developed. This method describes the change management process and should function as a support for a more effective handling of changes in order to prevent that uncontrolled changes arises. The method illuminates the importance of a common understanding, planning and identification & priority as three factors in order to create an effective change management. Further on we emphasize the necessity of having a structure of control which covers all steps in the method. Finally we describe how the step of handling change is conducted by presenting the necessary steps to prevent that uncontrolled changes arises.</p> / <p>Det ställs allt högre krav på IT-projekt idag jämfört med för några år sedan. IT-projekt måste hanteras effektivare och resultera i lönsammare investeringar för att projekten skall bli genomförda. För att kunna effektivisera hanteringen av IT-projekt och skapa lönsamhet måste dagens systemutvecklare ha en bred förståelse över IT-projektens karakteristika och vad som kan påverka dess resultat. Ofta sker förändringar inom IT-projekt under utvecklingen av ett system. Eftersom denna förändring är mer påtaglig vad det gäller IT-projekt är det viktigt att hantera risk och förändring vid utförandet av IT-projekt. Detta för att kunna förebygga och undvika att okontrollerade förändringar uppstår. Vårt syfte med uppsatsen är att undersöka om förändring ses som ett problem inom IT-projekt. Därefter identifierar och undersöker vi vilka arbetssätt som finns för att undvika okontrollerade förändringar inom IT-projekt och på så sätt förhindrar en oplanerad expansion av projektomfattningen. Uppsatsen resulterar även i ett tillvägagångssätt för hur denna förändringshantering kan se ut. Uppsatsarbetet har genomförts genom en litteraturstudie där teori om IT-projekt, systemutveckling, riskhantering och förändringshantering har behandlats. Uppsatsarbetet har vidare resulterat i en kvalitativ empirisk undersökning där tre personer som arbetar i systemutvecklingsföretag har intervjuats ingående. Litteraturstudien och den empiriska undersökningen har efter analysering resulterat i en egenutvecklad modell. Denna modell beskriver förändringshanteringsprocessen och skall fungera som ett underlag till en effektiv hantering av förändringar så att okontrollerade förändringar inte uppstår. I modellen belyser vi vikten av förståelse, planering och identifiering & prioritering som tre grundfaktorer för en effektiv hantering av förändring. Vi betonar även vikten av att ha en kontrollstruktur som sträcker sig över samtliga steg i modellen. Slutligen poängterar vi hur själva hanteringssteget skall utföras genom att presentera de steg som måste tas för att undvika att okontrollerade förändringar uppstår.</p>

Today there is an even higher demand on IT-projects success rate compared to a few years ago. IT-projects must be handled more efficiently and result in a more profitable investment. In order to make the handling of IT-projects more efficient and create profitability the developers must have a broad understanding of the IT-projects characteristics and which factors that affect the result of the projects. Changes within IT-projects are often carried out through the development of a system. Since this change is more common when it comes to IT-projects it is important to handle risk and change within these kinds of projects in order to prevent and avoid uncontrolled changes. Our purpose with this thesis is to investigate if change is a problem in IT-projects. Thereafter we identify and examine procedures to avoid uncontrolled changes within IT-projects and to prevent an unplanned expansion of the project scope. The thesis also results in a method of how this change can be controlled. The thesis has been conducted by studying theory about IT-projects, system development and change management. Further on a qualitative study has been conducted where three persons from different system development companies has been interviewed. After an analysis of the theoretical framework and the empirical research a method has been developed. This method describes the change management process and should function as a support for a more effective handling of changes in order to prevent that uncontrolled changes arises. The method illuminates the importance of a common understanding, planning and identification &amp; priority as three factors in order to create an effective change management. Further on we emphasize the necessity of having a structure of control which covers all steps in the method. Finally we describe how the step of handling change is conducted by presenting the necessary steps to prevent that uncontrolled changes arises. / Det ställs allt högre krav på IT-projekt idag jämfört med för några år sedan. IT-projekt måste hanteras effektivare och resultera i lönsammare investeringar för att projekten skall bli genomförda. För att kunna effektivisera hanteringen av IT-projekt och skapa lönsamhet måste dagens systemutvecklare ha en bred förståelse över IT-projektens karakteristika och vad som kan påverka dess resultat. Ofta sker förändringar inom IT-projekt under utvecklingen av ett system. Eftersom denna förändring är mer påtaglig vad det gäller IT-projekt är det viktigt att hantera risk och förändring vid utförandet av IT-projekt. Detta för att kunna förebygga och undvika att okontrollerade förändringar uppstår. Vårt syfte med uppsatsen är att undersöka om förändring ses som ett problem inom IT-projekt. Därefter identifierar och undersöker vi vilka arbetssätt som finns för att undvika okontrollerade förändringar inom IT-projekt och på så sätt förhindrar en oplanerad expansion av projektomfattningen. Uppsatsen resulterar även i ett tillvägagångssätt för hur denna förändringshantering kan se ut. Uppsatsarbetet har genomförts genom en litteraturstudie där teori om IT-projekt, systemutveckling, riskhantering och förändringshantering har behandlats. Uppsatsarbetet har vidare resulterat i en kvalitativ empirisk undersökning där tre personer som arbetar i systemutvecklingsföretag har intervjuats ingående. Litteraturstudien och den empiriska undersökningen har efter analysering resulterat i en egenutvecklad modell. Denna modell beskriver förändringshanteringsprocessen och skall fungera som ett underlag till en effektiv hantering av förändringar så att okontrollerade förändringar inte uppstår. I modellen belyser vi vikten av förståelse, planering och identifiering &amp; prioritering som tre grundfaktorer för en effektiv hantering av förändring. Vi betonar även vikten av att ha en kontrollstruktur som sträcker sig över samtliga steg i modellen. Slutligen poängterar vi hur själva hanteringssteget skall utföras genom att presentera de steg som måste tas för att undvika att okontrollerade förändringar uppstår.