This book discusses theoretically and empirically the trade-off relationship between the frequency of product adaptation activities and the constraints on development resources, and how companies can respond to these constraints. The objective of this book is to identify effective management practices in continuous product development. With the continuation of development activities, companies are required to constantly adapt their products to changes in the external environment. In continuous product development, the development process extends beyond product release, and interaction with the external environment is not limited to the planning stage but occurs multiple times throughout the process. What impact does the multiple adaptation activities have on the product performance as development activities become more continuous, and how to use limited development resources to provide stable and constant high-quality adaptation activities with optimal frequency have become urgent issues in the development sites. To address these research questions, this book focuses primarily on the development activities of the online game industry. The factors that bring about superior product performance are examined by combining case studies and questionnaire surveys on online game development projects. Furthermore, user community management is also discussed from the perspective of the interaction process between multiple user groups.
Author(s): Wei Huang
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 134
City: Singapore
Contents
About the Author
1 Introduction
1.1 Objective of This Book
1.2 Product Development Activities Transforming into Continuous Activities
1.3 Issues Related to the Continuation of Development Activities
1.4 What is the Optimal Development Model for Continuous Product Development?
1.5 Structure of This Book
References
2 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Literature Review on New Product Development
2.3 Literature Review on Adaptation Activities to Rapidly Changing Environments
2.3.1 Product Adaptation
2.3.2 Adaptation of the Development Process
2.4 Literature Review on Operationalization of Adaptive Activities (Development Flexibility)
2.5 Literature Review on Game Industry
2.6 Organizing Prior Research and Identifying Research Gaps
2.7 Analytical Issues of This Book
2.7.1 Analytical Issue 1
2.7.2 Analytical Issue 2
References
3 Research Design and Analysis Methods
3.1 What is the Concept of Continuous Product Development Defined in This Book?
3.2 Analytical Perspectives and Methods
3.3 Selection of the Research Target
Reference
4 Overview of the Chinese Game Industry and Characteristics of Online Game Development
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Development of Chinese Game Industry
4.2.1 Pre-2000 Period: Coexistence of Pirated and Official Versions of PC-Based Stand-Alone Games
4.2.2 2000–2010: Formation and Growth of the Game Industry
4.2.3 2010–2015: Multi-platform Development of Online Games
4.2.4 2015–Present: Shrinkage of the PC-Based Online Game Market and Rapid Growth of Mobile Game Market
4.2.5 Summary
4.3 Characteristics of Online Game Development
4.3.1 Online Game Development Environment and Development Organization
4.3.2 Online Game Development Process
4.4 Summary
References
5 Quantitative Analysis of Continuous Product Development
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Previous Research and Hypothesis Derivation
5.2.1 Usage of User Data
5.2.2 Integrity of Product Architecture
5.2.3 Development Flexibility
5.2.4 Collaboration Between the Development and Operation
5.3 Survey Design and Data Collection
5.3.1 Outline of Survey Implementation
5.3.2 Manipulation and Measurement of Variables
5.4 Analysis and Results
5.5 Discussion on Development Flexibility
5.6 Conclusion
References
6 Management of Flexibility in Continuous Product Development
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Case Selection
6.3 Case Analysis
6.3.1 Development Tools and Methods
6.3.2 Management of Development Resources
6.3.3 Development Flexibility
6.4 Discussion
References
7 Management of Exhaustion in Continuous Product Development
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Case Study of Project A
7.3 Development Workload and Exhaustion in Project A
7.4 Breaking Out of Fatigued Development Sites
7.5 Discussion
References
8 Product Interactions with the External Environment: The Impact of User Interactions on Product Performance
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Previous Research on the Interaction Between Products and Users
8.3 Business Model and Big Data Analysis of the Online Game Industry
8.4 Case Study of Project R
8.5 Overview of the Simulation Model
8.6 Sensitivity Analysis of Simulations
8.7 Discussion
References
9 Final Chapter
9.1 Conclusion
9.2 Practical Implications
9.3 Future Research Topics
References
Appendix
A.1 Survey Questions
Survey Request for Online Game Development Projects
Precautions on Filling Out the Survey
A.2 List of Survey Responses
