Feature creep

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the project management concept, see scope creep.

Feature creep is the proliferation of features in a product such as computer software.^[1] These often go beyond the basic function of the product and so can result in baroque over-complication rather than simple, elegant design.

1 Causes
2 Examples
3 Characteristics
4 Control
5 See also
- 5.1 Mitigation
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Causes

The most common cause is the desire to provide the consumer with a more useful or desirable product, in order to increase sales. However, the point often comes where a product does everything it's expected to do, leaving the manufacturer with the choice of adding unneeded functions or sticking with the old product.

[edit] Examples

This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Watches are a good example. Originally there were only 12-hour mechanical watches. The expansion of function to include a 24-hour clock, waterproofing, battery power, digital LCD displays, quartz crystal timing, and lights and/or glow-in-the-dark displays were certainly helpful in telling time. Further additions such as adding alarms, stopwatch functions, calendars, and phases of the moon were less applicable to the core function of telling time, but at least still related. Some watch makers then went further and included calculators and video games on watches, which are far from the basic function of a watch. Furthermore, these functions don't work well on a watch, since the buttons and display must be tiny relative to normal calculators and video games, making them second-rate at those functions.

[edit] Characteristics

Feature creep is the most common source of cost and schedule overruns.^[2] It thus endangers and can even kill products and projects. Apple's abandoned Copland operating system is an example of this.