BRotD - Entry 0260 Product Development Hubris

Best Reading of the Day

The following read is about video games, one specifically, and the design & development process it has been going through.  However, it is really a story of project scope creep, hubris, arrogance, and the problems of unlimited resources.

This is not a new story and is applicable to any project you encounter (that link I provided leads to one of the best stories of this kind you'll ever find).

The game in question is titled Star Citizen and its development efforts launched with great fanfare to a Kickstarter campaign that quickly became the most successful of its kind ever.

Years later the "game" has received over $300 million in funding and ... still hasn't launched anything out of alpha stage development.

I was initially intrigued having enjoyed founder Chris Robert's other efforts so I watched and waited.  What I kept seeing alarmed me.  Usually a Kickstarter campaign includes a goal that will result in "full funding" so a project will result in a product in your hands, and includes stretch goals that will get included if enough people pony up money.  This campaign, however, had no limit. As the funding increased the scope increased, seemingly endlessly.  I saw scope creep beyond belief and concluded I would have no part in the project until scope, and release dates, became solid.  7 years later I am still waiting.

Read more in this snippet:

Rough playable modes—alphas, not betas—are used to raise hopes and illustrate work being done. And Roberts has enticed gamers with a steady stream of hype, including promising a vast, playable universe with “100 star systems.” But most of the money is gone, and the game is still far from finished. At the end of 2017, for example, Roberts was down to just $14 million in the bank. He has since raised more money. Those 100 star systems? He has not completed a single one. So far he has two mostly finished planets, nine moons and an asteroid.

This is not fraud—Roberts really is working on a game—but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale.

Here is the full story:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2019/05/01/exclusive-the-saga-of-star-citizen-a-video-game-that-raised-300-millionbut-may-never-be-ready-to-play/#3e2d26c75ac9

Let this serve as a warning.  Managers, always provide resource constraints beyond what you actually have.  Developers, always listen to marketing to identify need.  Leaders, get out of the weeds to provide vision and let your people work.

And on

and on

...

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant