The Feasibility Study
After a company has made contact with a Systems Analyst, the Systems Analyst will go into the company and make a provisional study of the problem. They will do this to decide if a solution is possible, how it can be done and whether it is a good idea to implement. This study is known as a ‘feasibility study’. The deliverable for this stage in the Systems Life Cycle is the Feasibility Study Report. The Systems Analyst will carry out a number of tasks.
-
- They need to find out about the company and how it functions so that they can better understand and define both the problem and the context of the problem. Remember, the Systems Analyst doesn't know anything about the company yet, other than what they learnt in the first meeting. They need quickly to understand the business and its operations so that they can fully understand the nature of the problem.
- They need to investigate and then document the nature of the problem in some detail. This means that the Systems Analyst will do a scaled down 'systems analysis'. They might do some of the systems analysis tasks in 'outline detail'. You can read more about these actual tasks later, in the section on systems analysis.
- They need to identify, suggest and justify possible solutions. Often, a number of possible solutions are put forward to allow a choice to be made. The Systems Analyst will need to identify the benefits to the company of each possible solution put forward and how much each solution will cost the company. This is sometimes known as a ‘cost-benefit analysis’.
- In addition to a cost-benefit analysis, the Systems Analyst will also identify a time scale for each proposed solution - how long each one would take to implement.
- They need to identify any legal, moral or ethical considerations in the possible solutions.
- They need to identify any implications for the company. This could include identifying any new skills that the workforce will need, identifying any changes in the way the company will do business, identifying any changes in the way customers will interact with the business and Health and Safety issues, for example.
The Systems Analyst will carry out the above tasks and produce a report called the Feasibility Report. They will then present this written report to the company and may also do a presentation of their findings. This report will be the document that the company uses to decide whether or not to proceed with the project.
Two outcomes are possible. The company can decide not to go ahead with the project, perhaps because a solution is more expensive or more disruptive than they thought. Or they can decide to go ahead with a solution. If they decide to go ahead, they need first to select the solution that they want to go with from the range of possible solutions put forward in the Feasibility Report. They then need to agree other details such as the budget for the project and a start date for the next stage in the project. If you refer back to the Systems Life Cycle diagram, you will see that the next stage is known as the Systems Analysis stage.