Feasibility study

Encyclopedia : F : FE : FEA : Feasibility study

"Feasibility Study" is also the title of an episode from The Outer Limits television show.

A feasibility study is a preliminary study undertaken before the real work of a project starts to ascertain the likelihood of the project's success. It is an analysis of all possible solutions to a problem and a recommendation on the best solution to use. It involves evaluating how the solution will fit into the corporation. It, for example, can decide whether an order processing be carried out by a new system more efficiently than the previous one.

A feasibility study could be used to test a new working system, which could be used because:

The current system may no longer suit its purpose,

Technological Advancement may have rendered the current system redundant,

The business is expanding, allowing it to cope with extra work load,

Customers are complaining about the speed and quality of work the business provides,

Competitors are winning greater market shares due to an effective integration of a computerised system.

Although few businesses would not benefit from a computerized system at all, the process of carrying out this feasibility study makes the purchaser/client think carefully about how it is going to be used.

Feasibility viewpoints

A system's feasibility is typically considered from economic, technical, schedule and organisational viewpoints.

Economic Feasibilty This involves questions such as whether the firm can afford to build the system, whether its benefits should substantially exceed its costs, and whether the project has higher priority than other projects that might use the same resources.

Technical Feasibility This involves questions such as whether the technology needed for the system exists, how difficult it will be to build, and whether the firm has enough experience using that technology.

Schedule Feasibility This involves questions such as how much time is available to build the new system, when it can be built (i.e. during holidays), interference with normal business operation, etc.

Organisational Feasibility This involves questions such as whether the system has enough support to be implemented successfully, whether it brings an excessive amount of change, and whether the organisation is changing too rapidly to absorb it.

This is where you must state the problem in writing clearly on what you want to find out or what the problem is.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.