Product Malleability Perception: A Psychological Determinant of Requirements Instability

In customized product development projects that produce intangible products such as software, the decision-makers perceive the product as malleable or easy to change. However, implementing requirement changes during the execution of any large project often causes rework and cost overruns resulting in significant risks to the project's success. Prior literature provides only extraneous explanations, such as environmental uncertainty, for high requirements instability in customized intangible product development projects. In this conceptual paper, we explicate the cognitive effects of an intrinsic product attribute, i.e., product tangibility, on the decision maker's disposition to approve project requirements changes. We conceptualize our process model from the perspective of the theory of planned behavior and introduce the construct of product malleability perception as an actionable mediator between product intangibility and requirements instability in customized product development projects. As more organizations transition into the digitalization of work, insights from our conceptual model can serve as a basis for better control of requirements instability in projects and thus bring successful outcomes for project stakeholders.