Review Eight Aspects in a Feasibility Study

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Most people are aware of a Business Case. The Business Case allows you to define a project at a high-level, yet with sufficient enough detail to know whether the organization wants to provide funding. However, sometimes the sponsor is not certain of the costs and benefits, or even if the project is feasible. This is a good time for a Feasibility Study.

A Feasibility Study is used to explore whether a project makes sense or not. The Feasibility Study looks at more than cost and benefit. It looks at whether the project is feasible in a number of areas. 

There are a number of areas of feasibility that should be analyzed.

1. Technical. Is the project technically feasible? If it is you should state any technical risks associates with the project.
2. Financial. Is the project financially feasible? This would be especially important if the cost of the project was material to your company. It is possible that a project could have a cost that is significant enough to put the entire company at risk. You may have the ability to budget for the project now, but you might also analyze what the impact would be of a significant cost overrun.
3. Operational. Can you operate the project solution? It is possible that the project itself is feasible, but you may have significant risk in being able to operate the solution after the project is over.
4. Geographic. Is the project feasible given the physical location of the project team or the customer?
5. Time. Is the project feasible given the amount of time it will require from the participants? This is a big worry on larger projects. You may have the budget to execute the project but you may realize you cannot free up the project team for enough time to execute the project.
6. Resource. Do you have the staff, equipment, supplies and other resources necessary to complete the project?
7. Legal. Are there any legal problems that will make this project unfeasible?
8. Political. Are there any internal (or external) political problems that will make this project unfeasible?

Recommendation. You may explore a number of alternatives for structuring the project before ultimately drawing your final conclusion and recommendation. The recommendation may be that the project is not feasible. The sponsor and management stakeholders may choose to accept the recommendation or move another direction.

If the project appears feasible, the sponsor would proceed to develop the Business Case based on the final recommendation. The Business Case should address the costs, benefits, risks, assumptions, and other information to finally determine if the project makes business sense.