Feasibility Study

Discuss the Components of a feasibility report. Consider the following types of Feasibility:

1. Feasibility Study

The Feasibility study is a study of possible alternate solutions to a problem and a recommendation on the best alternative. (Randall, B. et. al, 2010) It can decide whether a process be carried out by a new system more efficiently than the existing one.

1.1. Economic feasibility:

Economic Feasibility study is the study which are related to cost benefit exploration of the project/software. For example staff cost, testing cost. This feasibility assess the efficiency of an prevailing system. (SHARMA, 2014)

This types of study that are generally considered tasks as they may benefit more than other’s from computerization and non-functional characteristics such as the time delay between the real world and the different parts of the system. The system costs should also be estimated in terms of basic resources of money, people and time

1.2. Technical Feasibility:

The main purpose of a technical feasibility study is to identify if a certain plan of action is feasible—that is, will it work? A technical feasibility assessment should be applied to all projects being considered in order to better comprehend if the project can be done “technically” and if it can be done “here and now.” Furthermore, the early stages of technical analysis will help recognize areas of fortes and weakness in the proposed project so that we know where to direct further thought, planning, resources or assistance. (Kersnaghan, 2012)

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1.3. Operational Feasibility

This study investigates the factors such as the probable reaction of employees to the project and other proposed organizational changes that may occur by implementing this software. Also Operational feasibility refers to how well a planned system solves the problems of the project and how well it works at using the opportunities of the project. Operational feasibility is therefore one of the key elements of a feasibility study. (Wells, 2014)

For example, if the employee are happy with the proposed system and find out no reason to change then there may be a high degree of resistance to the new system. Relevant factors here concern if the project has general management support and whether or not the users have been involved in the development of the proposal.

1.4. Time Feasibility

Time feasibility deals to find out if the given project could be completed within the given time phase or not. This study can help mitigate the risk that a project is wasting its time. Furthermore it helps us to do the project orderly and clearly. (Technology.blurtit.com, 2014)

Time Viability study helps to identify the various constraints on the project schedule and whether they could be reasonably met, so that letter there would not be any problem to meet the project goal. (Giorgini, 2003)

1.5. Legal Feasibility

Legal feasibility study defines whether the proposed system conflicts with legal requirements, e.g. a Data Processing system must comply with the local Data Protection Acts. When an organization has either internal or external legal counsel, such reviews are typically standard. However, a project may face legal issues after completion if this factor is not considered at this stage (John, 2014). It also determine whether the proposed project conflicts with legal requirements such as known Acts, Statutes, or any pending legislation. (Newnorthafrica.com, 2014)

1.6. Social Feasibility

This feasibility deals to check if the designed system will be satisfactory with the people or not. This assumption would in general examine the probability that the project would have to be acknowledged by the group of people that are directly affected by the Designed system. (Newnorthafrica.com, 2014)

1.7. Management Feasibility

The management feasibility study would determine the organizational chart and qualification of the people involved. It checks if the staff of the organization are capable of running and maintaining the designed system.

References

John, J. 2014.System Analysis and Design-Feasibility Analysis. [online] Available at: http://www.learnsad.com/Feasibility.html [Accessed: 14 Oct 2013].

Kersnaghan, S. 2012. Technical Feasibility Assessments.Climate Resiliance Framework, 3

Newnorthafrica.com. 2014.Economic, legal, social, and technical feasibility study | NEWNORTHAFRICA. [online] Available at: http://www.newnorthafrica.com/feasibility/ [Accessed: 13 Oct 2013].

SHARMA, A. 2014.Economic Feasibility ~ All Computer Topics. [online] Available at: http://allcomputertopics.blogspot.com/2013/02/economic-feasibility.html [Accessed: 2 Apr 2013].

Technology.blurtit.com. 2014.What is purpose of scheduling? – Blurtit. [online] Available at: http://technology.blurtit.com/3251022/what-is-purpose-of-scheduling [Accessed: 3 Oct 2013].

Wells, A. 2014.What Is An Operational Feasibility Study? – Blurtit. [online] Available at: http://business.blurtit.com/855874/what-is-an-operational-feasibility-study [Accessed: 2 Sep 2013].

Task 2:

Assess the impact of different feasibility criteria on a system investigation.

2. Impact of Feasibility Study

2.1. Impact due to Technology

The technical aspect explores—if the project feasibility is within the limits of current technology available within the organization and does the technology exist at all, or is available within given resource constraints (i.e., total cost and time constraint of the project). In the technical feasibility of the Himalayan Library the various requirements of the organization, such as, (I) various input device required to run the project (II) Output devices required to produce the output (III) The availability of processing devices in the organization. This analysis helps in the future to run the program to achieve the full advantages.

This deals us to find out various aspects like

• Assuming that technology required is applicable, is it available in the current market.
• If the technology is already available in the organization, does it support to handle the solution?
• In case the technology is not available in, can it be acquired?

2.2. Economic Impact

The economic feasibility of the system helps the organization to allot if the implementation of the program is worthwhile. As soon as specific requirements and solutions have been identified we can weigh the costs and benefits of each alternative. This Feasibility study helps to find out the following aspect:

Return On investment (ROI) at what period of time does the system start to return the initial investment

Payback Period (PP) time required to generate sufficient cash flow to recover its initial cost.

2.3. Operational Impact

Assessing this feasibility is to gain an understanding of if the proposed system will likely to solve the business problems, or take benefit of the opportunities or not. It is important to understand how the new system will fit into the current day to day processes of the organization.

By analyzing this aspect we could find out if the staff present in the organization are able to run the given system. Then they would be able to make the decision to hire new technical staff or to give the trainings to the staff.

2.4. Social Impact

It takes in consideration whether the current work practices and procedures support a new system and social factors of how the organizational changes will affect the working lives of those affected by the system.

2.5. Legal Impact

This feasibility also has the major role in the development process. It determines if there are any restriction of the law in the process of development of the proposed software. If any permission is to be taken in order to develop the system then we could find out in this phase.

2.6. Managerial Impact

After implementation does the organization have qualified manpower to run the program? Do we have to give additional trainings? These are the main aspect that come under this feasibility study. It helps to identify the capabilities of the employee. Beside that the main aspect it deals with is does the software helps in managing the daily activities of the organization.

Conclusion

The feasibility study is relevant to the determination of if there should be any further plans implemented. The conclusion might be either the project does not successfully serve the needs of the organization or the conclusions of the study might be positive. In this case the study provides with a clear understanding of what the project to be developed needs in terms of modification, cost, profit, risk, and time. The feasibility study them serves two functions:

• The study makes the evaluation of the total cost required for funding the project.
• The result of the study may give the inputs for the project to be implemented

Task 3:

Undertake a systems investigation to meet the business need. Consider the following aspects during investigation:

3.1. Product Description

Library Management system for the Himalayan Library is the computerized system which helps the librarian or the user to maintain the daily activities in the systematic order. It reduces the risk of paper work that includes loss of file, damage of file, consuming of time, difficult to search the required data etc. But by the implementation of library management system the user would be able to manage the record more efficiently and time –saving.

3.2. Problem Statement

As the Himalayan library is using the manual system for the management of every task in the library, they are facing various issues. So to solve those issues they have planned to implement the computerized system for the day to day management of their task. Some of the Problem they have been facing are:

3.2.1. File Lost:

As a lack of computerized system there is a high chance for the file to be lost. It may be due to sometimes the librarian forget to keep the file to the original place due to lot of member queue for borrowing the book or sometimes he might forget the original place.

3.2.2. File Damage:

The other problem is the damaged of the file. This might be because of some accident like the librarian hitting the cup of tea on the paper. This might cause due to other potential aspects like animals. Rat or some insects may damage the file/records.

3.2.3. Difficult to search Record:

It becomes very difficult to search for the specific record in very less time. A lot of manual task has to be done to search for the user record while lending the book.

3.2.4. Space Consuming:

As the day passes the records of the libray are getting more and more. And practically it becomes difficult to manage and keep those record safe. Hence, managing the physical records become space consuming.

3.2.5. Difficult to view Reports:

Reports to be created in the manual system is too time consuming. It requires the librarian to go through various files in order to produce one report.

3.3. Objective of the Proposed System

3.3.1. Improvement in control and performance

The Himalayan Library management system is developed to overcome the various problem that the library has been facing. The system must be capable of validating the user, storing record and generating reports.

3.3.2. Cost Saving

As before the Himalayan library has been hiring about 5 employee, but after implementation of the Library management system the library could be handle with 2members saving the cost of 3 other employee. Beside that it saves the cost of lots of paper.

3.3.3. Save time

Librarian is able to search for the books or generate various reports within the certain clicks, compared to the manual system it saves a lot of time.

3.3.4. Security

As all the information are saved in the centralized machine and are being backed up regularly, there is a minimum chance of the data being lost.

3.4. Requirement

Software Requirement

• .NET framework 4 or higher
• SQL Server 2008 or higher
• Windows OS 7 /8/8.1

Hardware Requirement for Smooth Running

• Processor- 1.5 GHz
• Ram- 2 GB

For synchronization between computer LAN connection is required

3.5. Fact Finding Techniques

On-site Observation

As a junior system analyst, it was the responsibility to check the functioning of library. So, on the visit to the library for two days we observed librarian issuing and returning books as well as other functioning of the library. We also inspected the place where the cards are stored and from that it was seen that it was a real mess. To see if a particular book is already issued, it is a difficult and effort intensive process. The analyst also saw the records for books, members, and accounts. From site visit we had a good understanding of the functioning of the system. After this, we performed some personal interviews of library staff and few members. The interview is show below.

Interview

Beside the on-site observation interview with some selected stake holders were performed as the part of the requirement gathering. In this process we conducted structured interview with administrator, 2 librarian and some users about their expectation of the library management system.

Task 4

Use appropriate systems analysis tools and techniques to carry ot a system investigation. You can consider the following tools:

Use case Diagram

Context Diagram

0 and 1 Level DFD diagram

4.1. Use Case Diagram

Figure 1: Use Case Diagram of Library Management System

4.2. Context Diagram

Figure 2: Context Diagram of the Library Management System

4.3. Data Flow Diagram

Figure 3: Data Flow Diagram of Library Management System

Figure 4: Data Flow Diagram of Library Management System

Nikesh Adhikari | 1