Feasibility Analysis

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Feasibility Analysis
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Feasibility Analysis3 types of feasibility

• Financial
• Organizational
• Technical

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Feasibility Information Gathering Tasks

• 1. Define the business and work environments
• 2. Describe current system of work
• 3. Identify key benefits and leverage points
• 4. Identify broad system requirements

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Feasibility AnalysisLeverage Points 

• Business or application
  benefits
• that provide competitive
  advantage.  ExamplesIncrease market
  shareIncrease linkage to vendors or
  customersProvide desired information that is not
  currently available 

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Tangible Benefits  

• Measurable benefits
• Examples
• Decrease operating cost by 10 this
  yearIncrease market share by 5 per year for
  three yearsDecrease headcount by 5

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Intangible Benefits

• Non-quantifiable
• Examples
• Increase goodwillImprove company
  imageIncrease customer satisfactionImprove
  employee job satisfactionProvide faster and more
  accurate information to customer services
  representatives PreventiveAvoid staff increase

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Sources of RiskHardware Risks

• Not installed when needed
• Cannot do the job
• Does not work as advertised
• Installation not prepared in time, insufficient,
  wrong
• Hardware delivery incorrect, with damage

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Software Risks

• Not installed when needed
• Cannot do the job
• Does not work as advertised
• Contains undocumented features that cause
  compromise on application requirements

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Group Risks

• Key person(s) quit, are promoted, go on jury
  duty, etc.
• Skill levels inadequate
• Training not in time to benefit the project

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Project Management Risks

• Schedule not accurate
• Budget not sufficient
• Manager change

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User Risks

• Quits, transfers, is replaced
• Not cooperative
• Not supportive
• Does not spend as much time as original
  commitment requested

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Computer Risks

• Test time insufficient
• Inadequate disk space, computer time 

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 Developing Technical Alternatives

• Define the overall application concept
• Evaluate usefulness of existing hardware/software
• If new equipment or software is needed
• Determine data sharing requirements
• Determine the criticality of data to the company
• If shared or critical data, select equipment
  (either LAN or mainframe) and software that allow
  centralized control over data.
• If non-critical and single location, select the
  smallest equipment that allows centralized
  control.
• If non-critical and multi-location settings,
  consider decentralizing or distributing the
  application.
• Define special hardware/software requirements

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More on Technical Alternatives

• Performance SLA, environment
• Information I/O form and format
• Economy budget, cost/benefit
• Control audit security physical, logical
• Efficiency improves work flow and practice
• Services functionality and operational support

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Security Review Topics

• Physical facility -- fire prevention, fire
  drills, and minimize threats from fire.
• Electrical routing, distribution of power, backup
  power, etc.
• Environmental monitoring and control mechanisms,
  e.g., 'housekeeping' functions of the maintenance
  staff.
• Evaluate and protect againsto Storm, bomb
  threat, etc.o Unwanted external perimeter
  access.o Unauthorized use of equipment.
  o Unauthorized computer access. o Potential
  database damage.

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Data Security Design Process

• Users and IS developers consider each process and
  the data being manipulated, to define classes of
  users and their allowable actions.
• A hierarchy of access rights is built to
  identify, by data item, which actions are allowed
  by which class of users.
• A scheme for implementing the access restrictions
  is designed for the application.

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Backup Design Guidelines
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Conversion Activities

• Identify current and future locations for all
  data items.
• Define edit and validate criteria for all
  attributes.
• Define data conversion activities.
• Define options for data conversion.
• Recommend and gain approval for data conversion
  strategy.
• Develop a schedule for data conversion based on
  estimates of time to convert one data item.
• Define options for application conversion and
  implementation. (direct cutover, geographic,
  functional or other incremental option).
• Recommend and gain approval for implementation
  strategy.
• Develop implementation schedule.

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Feasibility Study Documentation

• Management Summary
• Overview of the business and work environments
• Current system of work
• Key benefits and leverage points
• Broad system requirements
• Financial Feasibility
• Organizational Feasibility
• Technological Feasibility
• Technical Alternatives

• Recommendations
• Functional, technical, etc. recommendations
• Benefits
• Tangible
• Intangible
• Key Leverage Points
• Risks Contingency plans
• Schedule responsibilities for next steps