2. Feasibility Study

Determining whether a problem is worth fixing involves a feasibility study. The aim of the feasibility study is to understand the problem and to determine whether it is worth proceeding. There are five main factors to be considered:

• Technical feasibility - investigating whether the technology exists to implement the proposed system, or whether this is a practical proposition.
• Economic feasibility - has to do with establishing the cost-effectiveness of the proposed system - if the benefits do not outweigh the costs, then it is not worth going ahead.
• Legal feasibility - determines whether there is any conflict between the proposed system and legal requirements - for example, will the system contravene the Information Privacy Act?
• Operational feasibility - Operational feasibility is concerned with whether the current work practices and procedures are adequate to support the new system. It is also concerned with social factors - how the organisational change will affect the working lives of those affected by the system.
• Schedule feasibility - looks at how long the system will take to develop, or whether it can be done in a desired time-frame.