The Management of Continuous Product Development : Empirical Research in the Online Game Industry

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. Contents 5 About the Author 8 1 Introduction 9 1.1 Objective of This Book 9 1.2 Product Development Activities Transforming into Continuous Activities 10 1.3 Issues Related to the Continuation of Development Activities 11 1.4 What is the Optimal Development Model for Continuous Product Development? 14 1.5 Structure of This Book 19 References 20 2 Literature Review 21 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 Literature Review on New Product Development 22 2.3 Literature Review on Adaptation Activities to Rapidly Changing Environments 24 2.3.1 Product Adaptation 25 2.3.2 Adaptation of the Development Process 27 2.4 Literature Review on Operationalization of Adaptive Activities (Development Flexibility) 28 2.5 Literature Review on Game Industry 31 2.6 Organizing Prior Research and Identifying Research Gaps 33 2.7 Analytical Issues of This Book 34 2.7.1 Analytical Issue 1 35 2.7.2 Analytical Issue 2 35 References 35 3 Research Design and Analysis Methods 38 3.1 What is the Concept of Continuous Product Development Defined in This Book? 38 3.2 Analytical Perspectives and Methods 39 3.3 Selection of the Research Target 41 Reference 43 4 Overview of the Chinese Game Industry and Characteristics of Online Game Development 44 4.1 Introduction 44 4.2 Development of Chinese Game Industry 44 4.2.1 Pre-2000 Period: Coexistence of Pirated and Official Versions of PC-Based Stand-Alone Games 44 4.2.2 2000–2010: Formation and Growth of the Game Industry 46 4.2.3 2010–2015: Multi-platform Development of Online Games 49 4.2.4 2015–Present: Shrinkage of the PC-Based Online Game Market and Rapid Growth of Mobile Game Market 53 4.2.5 Summary 56 4.3 Characteristics of Online Game Development 60 4.3.1 Online Game Development Environment and Development Organization 60 4.3.2 Online Game Development Process 62 4.4 Summary 66 References 67 5 Quantitative Analysis of Continuous Product Development 68 5.1 Introduction 68 5.2 Previous Research and Hypothesis Derivation 70 5.2.1 Usage of User Data 70 5.2.2 Integrity of Product Architecture 71 5.2.3 Development Flexibility 72 5.2.4 Collaboration Between the Development and Operation 72 5.3 Survey Design and Data Collection 73 5.3.1 Outline of Survey Implementation 73 5.3.2 Manipulation and Measurement of Variables 75 5.4 Analysis and Results 77 5.5 Discussion on Development Flexibility 79 5.6 Conclusion 81 References 83 6 Management of Flexibility in Continuous Product Development 85 6.1 Introduction 85 6.2 Case Selection 86 6.3 Case Analysis 87 6.3.1 Development Tools and Methods 87 6.3.2 Management of Development Resources 88 6.3.3 Development Flexibility 90 6.4 Discussion 92 References 95 7 Management of Exhaustion in Continuous Product Development 96 7.1 Introduction 96 7.2 Case Study of Project A 97 7.3 Development Workload and Exhaustion in Project A 97 7.4 Breaking Out of Fatigued Development Sites 99 7.5 Discussion 102 References 103 8 Product Interactions with the External Environment: The Impact of User Interactions on Product Performance 104 8.1 Introduction 104 8.2 Previous Research on the Interaction Between Products and Users 105 8.3 Business Model and Big Data Analysis of the Online Game Industry 106 8.4 Case Study of Project R 107 8.5 Overview of the Simulation Model 111 8.6 Sensitivity Analysis of Simulations 115 8.7 Discussion 118 References 119 9 Final Chapter 121 9.1 Conclusion 121 9.2 Practical Implications 124 9.3 Future Research Topics 126 References 126 Appendix 127 A.1 Survey Questions 127 Survey Request for Online Game Development Projects 127 Precautions on Filling Out the Survey 127 A.2 List of Survey Responses 132