Computing System Feasibility Study and Its Role Within The Analysis o

Question: You are employed as a junior analyst by 'MFSAD', a new enterprise developing business systems. You have been asked to write a report that discusses the importance of a feasibility study in the analysis of a system. You are to include discussion on: 1. What is a feasibility study and its role within the analysis/investigation of a system. 2. The components of a feasibility report. 3. Feasibility criteria and their impact on an investigation. 4. Fact finding tchniques employed in the analysis. Answer: Feasibility Study Feasibility study is the analysis of a problem that occurs in a system and determining the effective solution of the problem. For conducting a feasibility study some fields of study must be taken into consideration. These fields are economical, operational and technical fields of the system. It is important to study the feasibility of a system to know the outcome that can be obtained from the system. It is a process of analyzing the problems that are going to be faced in conducting a project and check the possibility of solving the problems. It is a method through which it is seen that whether a project or a system will work or not, the benefits and cost of the project and can the computing system be technically constructed. Need or purpose of feasibility study by the entrepreneurs After developing a business plan or concept the next step that must be taken is to check the feasibility of the plan (Issa and Flood, 2014). For doing this the entrepreneurs goes for few questioning about the outcome of the business concept and the future aspect of the project on which they are planning to invest. Hence, through a feasibility study it is determined that the project is demographically possible or not (Goto et al., 1999). Therefore it helps the entrepreneurs to know about the future risk of the project and also helps in further decision taking (McCarty, 1969). Feasibility questions for the survey and development While conducting a feasibility study for a computing system few questions comes into mind of the entrepreneurs, to know, whether or not the system is suitable for investment. These questions are as follows (Exemplary feasibility study of chiropractic, 2000): What are the actual services rendered by the system? The target customers for whom the system is made for. What is the benefit or outcome of the project for the organization? How to bring the product or service in the market for sale? Role of feasibility report in analysis of the system The main role of feasibility study is described in the points below (Needham and Herbert, 1982): It helps to know the future aspect of a project or a business plan. It helps to know the cost and benefits of a project. It helps to know the risk that may occur while conducting the project and the possible way of overcoming the risks. It helps to know whether the project is technically possible or not. Component of feasibility report After conducting feasibility study of a system a feasibility report is made to represent the outcome of the study made on the system that helps the audience of the report to take proper decision regarding the system. A feasibility report has several components that are discussed in details in the points given below (Scheurer, 1994): Executive Summary The executive summary contains the brief discussion about the entire project that is presented at the beginning of the report. It is max of two to three pages and the main points discussed in the report are presented in this heading (Sobhani and Najimi, 2014). In other words it can be said that it includes the entire discussion of the project in short. It provides the audience with an idea that what has been discussed in the entire report and how the study has been conducted. Background information of the organization: In this section the background of the organization for which the report is conducted is described. This includes the summary of the background information of the organization, information about the stakeholders of the organization, the name; address, each and every details of the organization that is mandatory for conducting the entire feasibility report (Wolf, 2001). It is important because to know the feasibility of a project it is important to know the organizer of the project. Proposed system or plan: This section is the largest portion of the feasibility report that is used to describe the proposed plans for system or project that is to be made in the future (T. El-Madany et al., 2012). This section includes many components that are discussed to know the feasibility of the project. Some of the important components of this section are discussed below: Description of the plan: The description of the plan is the brief idea of the project that is to be conducted. It includes the entire proposal and business concept that the entrepreneurs want to be checked and examined. The entire analysis is made on this proposal and the outcome is represented in the report. Advantage and disadvantage of the plan: This section includes the pros and cons of the proposal and describes how the system in beneficial or negatively effective for the organization. In this section the advantages and the disadvantages of conducting the project is discussed and the risk of the project is also mentioned in this section. Cost of the plan or proposed system: In this section the cost of conducting the project is analyzed and the cost is compared with the budget to know whether the project is possible for the organization or not. The cost of the project is also compared with the outcome profit of the project to know that the project is beneficial for the organization or not. Comparison of current and proposed situation Here in this section the current situation of the organization is compared with the proposed situation to know the benefits of the project. It helps the stakeholders of the organization to take decision regarding the approval of the project. Project schedule: The project schedule includes all information about the timing fixed for each work to be conducted while completing the proposal and the time boundary for completing the proposed plan is evaluated to know the feasibility of the system (Yang and Ma, 2013). Final recommendation: The final recommendation about the feasibility of the proposed system or plan is presented in this section that helps the organization to take proper decision regarding the project. It helps the management team to know whether any changes in needed to be made, or what are the possibilities of the proposed plans. Feasibility criteria For conducting feasibility study for a system the basic feasibility criteria are as follows (Calyam et al., 2014): 1. Technology: This checks whether the computing system is technically possible or not. What are the technical problems that may occur while making the system and whether the problems can be minimized or not. 2. Operational: As per these criteria it is checked that whether or not the project will operate to fulfill the desire of the organization and provide outcome as per the requirement of the organization. 3. Schedule: This checks the time constraints of making the computing system and sees whether or not the project can be completed as per the planned schedule. 4. Economic: This criterion deals with the cost and benefits of the proposed project and sees the future valuation of the project for the benefit of the organization (Danhof and Smith, 1981). 5. Legal: As per this criterion it is checked that the project or proposal is legally approved or not. What are the legal issues related with the proposal of the system and how this issues can be solved for completion of the project. 6. Social: As per this criterion the social effects of the proposed plan is checked. It is seen that how the project effects the environment and the society. Impact of feasibility study Feasibility study is conducted on pre-conduction of the proposed plan or project. It is not always totally correct and there remains a chance of miscommunication in this study. The analysis is done on only the proposal which is different from that of real situation. The real situation can be less or more adverse. But in most cases this study is highly helpful for the management team to take a proper decision. The main impact of the study is an increase in the budget of the organization because of the cost incurred for conducting the feasibility analysis. But it is generally helpful in nature in most of the cases. References Calyam, P., Berryman, A., Welling, D., Mohan, S., Ramnath, R. and Ramnathan, J. (2014). VDPilot: feasibility study of hosting virtual desktops for classroom labs within a federated university system.IJCC, 3(2), p.158. Danhof, K. and Smith, C. (1981).Computing system fundamentals. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Exemplary feasibility study of chiropractic. (2000).Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 5(1), pp.31-32. Goto, H., Sugiura, T., Harada, Y. and Kazui, T. (1999). Feasibility of using the automatic generating system for quartz watches as a leadless pacemaker power source.Med. Biol. Eng. Comput., 37(3), pp.377-380. Issa, R. and Flood, I. (2014).Computing in civil and building engineering. Reston, Va.: American Society of Civil Engineers. McCarty, D. (1969).Feasibility study. Washington: National Center for Educational Research and Development [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.]. Needham, R. and Herbert, A. (1982).The Cambridge distributed computing system. London: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Scheurer, T. (1994).Foundations of computing. Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley. Sobhani, J. and Najimi, M. (2014). Numerical study on the feasibility of dynamic evolving neural-fuzzy inference system for approximation of compressive strength of dry-cast concrete.Applied Soft Computing, 24, pp.572-584.