What is a feasibility analysis?

Feasibility analysis, or most times referred to as feasibility study, is pretty self-explanatory. Its whole purpose is to gauge the possibility of success of a certain project, or if it is anywhere near doable with respect to the original target of its facilitators. This ensures that an objective is legally and technically viable, and that it actually has a promising return of investment. Whether the project is a study or a business, these things cost a lot of money to begin with, hence it is very important to know during the primary stages if they give out satisfactory results, or work like how it is supposed to. Aside from that, feasibility analyses just make an entire project more organized during execution, thus making it an integral part in the process of conceiving it.

Kinds of Feasibility Analysis

Feasibility analyses do not target vague ideas picked out from the project, otherwise it is not able to serve its purpose. Specificity is an important characteristic you can identify from a good feasibility analysis, because it elaborates the intended focus of the study or business model. Because its nature lies on measuring a certain project’s capability for success, it is important for you to note of the different kinds of feasibility analysis in order to know what your project specifically needs by virtue of the concerns of the project in and of itself. However, when it comes to studies, it should be taken note of that you may need to have more than one kind of feasibility analysis in order for your project to be catered to as a whole instead of in certain parts only. This is due to the complexity of various studies, and researchers may have to target more than one aspect of the topic they chose.

Operational Feasibility : When there is a proposed study or business, it is clear that its premise lies on the goal to fix or mitigate a certain problem. With that, the operational feasibility analyzes how well your system or project solves the very issues it promises to answer to. It also tackles the use of the mentioned requirements or tools to be used, as well as how much it uses the opportunities present in the scope and delimitation part to its own advancement. This may look like discussing how automated systems fix the existing problems there are in manual jobs such as in factory work where the environment might be too hazardous, or perhaps the job needs the kind of precision only a machine can perfect. In operational feasibility analyses, it is made clear how the issue at hand and the proposal are not a problem-solution mismatch.Economic Feasibility : It is important to make sure that you are profiting more than you have invested. During economic feasibility analysis, you should be able to convince investors that your project is worth investing to not only because of its effectiveness in the operational aspect, but because of its ensured return of investment. Both the costs and the benefits are weighed in this kind of analysis in order for the team or the researchers to be able to allocate their budget better, and also to have accurate predictions for when the project arrives and is ready for consumption. This is developed based on everything in the project involving money. For business projects, the basis is focused on the trajectory of the project when it is made open to the market.Technical Feasibility : When making a business model, or when crafting a study, it is important to take note of the resources that will be needed for the project in its making. In the technical feasibility analysis, the viability of the needed resources, may they be hardware, software, human resources, location and environment, or materials, are weighed whether or not they are within reach of the given team. This could be taken as the logistical plan of how your project will take into effect regarding how it will be produced, how it will operate as a study, and how it can be tracked in the long run.Schedule Feasibility : The moment you propose something is the moment you technically make a promise to someone. This means that it also comes with a time frame. In the schedule feasibility analysis, the team, facilitators, or the researchers estimate how long it will take the whole project to be complete. Timelines of expected tasks or activities to be carried out are also discussed in this kind of analysis. Moreover, it is important to note for the conductors of the project that gauging the correct time frame is crucial, because if they promise a duration that does not have any allowance, it is likely for the project to be forced to be sped up which leads to unsatisfactory results. This may mean that the output is premature, hence hard to accept, or that the costs may rise as well due to the forced pace.Legal Feasibility : Life is a pyramid and we are told that the law is at the tip of it. In the legal feasibility analysis, the assurance that the project does not trample any data protection or social laws is inherently focused on. This is why teams should research on the kind of laws where they are conducting their project in. Aside from that, a few legal actions may need to be done before you can begin some required tasks. An example of which is some local areas requiring interviewers to have the LGU’s (local government unit) consent before being able to interview residents in their perimeters. This analysis safeguards the project from future glitches caused by non-compliance with the law or the violation of it.

How to Conduct a Feasibility Analysis

Step 1: Outlining the Plan

Assuming that the project and target problem are already thought of, you may begin your analysis through making an outline of all the important points that you aim to hit. If you are conducting a study, you may create your outline through identifying the nature of your project, which means a brief description of it will do. After that, talk about your target market and how you expect them to react to your project, and why they are likely to do so. Next, discuss your marketing strategy precisely and why you think it is the best strategy for your product, as well as why you think it makes you one step ahead of others. The kind of feasibility analysis may be discussed subsequent to the aforementioned, as well as the meta analysis of which i.e. why this aspect, or these aspects, are crucial to have as lenses to be looked at for the project.

Step 2: Income Statement

Even if you are not necessarily making an economic feasibility analysis exclusively, it is still important for you to give an income statement. This allows you to view your project backwards, which means in here, you are able to state how much you need in order to commence the widespread of your project, or perhaps both your expected income and spending for it. It is important for you not to speak in absolutes when making an income statement, as allowances may be needed in case of later adjustments of your project.

Step 3: Organization and Operations

To get your project the recognition it deserves, the organization of the committee needed for it to commence is important to talk about. In here, you may also talk about the venue you are most likely going to present your product, or where you are going to test it. Through this, you may gauge the needed equipment and personnel for your project.

Step 4: Review and Analyze Data

Your claims are not superficial and ambiguous, since a lot may be affected by the things you claim there to be the accurate background of your problems, or the sample group you are targeting, and the like. Because heavy research and a plethora of references as well as projections are done, it is likely that you might have missed something, or misinterpreted a few things. Reviewing and reanalyzing the gathered data is always an important step in making sure that your project is intact and accurate, more so the analysis of its possibility for success. All in all, this is the step that concludes your feasibility analysis that gives you the assurance that you have triumphantly assessed the important aspects of your project.

FAQ

If there has to be two major characteristics of a feasibility analysis, what would they be?

They would have to be thorough and unbiased. Because it is an analysis, it has to be elaborate, clear, and specific. Vagueness has no place in making a good run-through on the given important aspects. Moreover, it is important for the analysis to be unbiased, and it should not be bent to favor the optics of your project. At the end of the day, it is your project that will suffer if you are partial in assessing its possibility in the long run.

Legal feasibility, in a very general sense, is the legal and ethical conformity of your study, which is extremely essential. A few examples of which are business licenses, government certification, insurance, copyright, health and safety protocols, and tax number.

How do I make sure my feasibility study is well structured?

You may refer to precedence which can be downloaded through the samples in the top half of the article, or you may download a project managing application in order to check and balance the data that you are formulating. For optimal results, you may use both in order to have multiple references and safeguards.

A project needs a backbone to support it once it has to stand in order to be used by the greater society. Feasibility studies are very important because they are preemptive measures that allow us to assess different aspects of our projects to make sure that certain standards are met, or that we are actually investing time, effort, and money on something that is surely going to give us something back. Background assessments and further research truly is needed for this in order for us to be able to see the bigger picture, and draw insights based on supported ideas we can find from precedence.