A Feasibility Study in Project Management and Its Importance

The development and acceptance of training in project management have shifted dramatically over the last several years. Also, these developments are anticipated to continue and intensify. As project management becomes more popular, feasibility studies become more important.

A feasibility study is the first item on a project manager's agenda before approving the start of a project. Although they are not needed to carry out a feasibility study themselves, project managers utilize it as a roadmap to steer the project and gain a complete grasp of its characteristics, business objectives, and risk considerations.

Failure can indeed be terrifying. Nevertheless, beginning a challenging, big project that will have an impact on your business may be exciting. If you have never conducted a project management feasibility assessment, this article will assist you in getting started.

What is a Feasibility Study in Project Management?

A feasibility study is a thorough analysis of a project proposal that considers all elements essential to success in order to determine the project's chances of success. ROI, or the projected earnings from the project, can be utilized to quantify business success in general.

A proposed strategy or project's viability is assessed within a feasibility study. Also, a project's or business venture's viability is assessed as part of a feasibility study to ascertain its likelihood of success.

A feasibility analysis, as its name suggests, is used to assess an idea's viability, such as confirming that a project is both legally and technically possible and also economically reasonable. It tells if, in particular conditions, it may or may not be possible to complete a project. There are several potential causes for this, including the need for excessive resources, which not only hinders them from executing other jobs but can also cause more expense than a business would recover by taking on an unsuccessful project.

A well−planned and effective study can provide a historical background of the company or project, including descriptions of goods or services, accounting statements, information about implementations and management, financial data, marketing policies, research, legal needs, and tax duties. Such analyses often come before technical creation and project execution.

Types of Feasibility Studies

Since a feasibility analysis assesses the project's likelihood of success, perceived impartiality is a crucial element in the legitimacy of the assessment for interested investors and financing institutions. A feasibility study can have five different areas, each of which analyzes a different topic. These are as follows −

Technical Feasibility

The technological resources that the organization has access to are the main focus of this examination. It aids companies in determining if the technological resources are enough and if the tech team has the skills necessary to turn concepts into functional systems. The assessment of the proposed system's technical needs, including its software and other components, is part of the technical feasibility process.

Financial Feasibility

Before allocating financial resources, this evaluation often includes a cost or benefit assessment of a project to help businesses examine the feasibility, costs, and advantages related to a project. Additionally, it improves the credibility of a project and serves as an impartial project evaluation, assisting decision−makers in identifying the favorable economic advantages that the project proposal would bring to the business.

Legal Feasibility

This analysis looks at any potential conflicts between the planned project and applicable laws, such as zoning regulations, data protection laws, and social media usage regulations. Let's imagine that a company wishes to build a brand new office space in a certain area. A feasibility study can find that the preferred site of the organization is not permitted for that particular kind of enterprise. By realizing that their endeavor was unworkable from the start, that company has just saved a great deal of time and effort.

Operational Feasibility

This evaluation entails doing research to determine whether and how effectively the needs of the organization can be satisfied by the project's completion. Additionally, an operational feasibility study evaluates how the planning of a project fulfills the needs found during the system development process' requirements analysis phase.

Scheduling Feasibility

The most crucial evaluation for a project's success is its scheduling feasibility. After taking into account the organization's capabilities, it predicts the amount of time required to execute the project and assesses if that timeframe is accessible.

Setting deadlines and estimating the amount of time it will take to complete the project is crucial for its success. Next, this study help analyze how the project's schedule fits with present business practices, including demand forecasting and production plan, among numerous other factors.

Importance of Feasibility Study

A feasibility study is valuable because it allows a company to be spot−on before devoting time, resources, or money. A feasibility study could find innovative suggestions that change the project's scope. Making these choices ahead of time will save you from jumping into a project only to find out it won't work. A feasibility study often benefits a project because it gives you and other interested parties a clear understanding of what is being proposed.

The following are the principal advantages that project feasibility studies provide −

• Increases the focus of project teams

• Explores new opportunities

• Offers essential information that aids in deciding whether to move forward or not

• Decreases the number of available business possibilities

• Finds a strong justification for continuing the project

• Raises the success rate by looking at several factors

• Aids in making project decisions

• Identifies the reasons why proceeding is not a good idea

Best Practices to Conduct a Project Feasibility Study

Since they take into account the demands and objectives of each project, feasibility assessments are distinctive. However, every feasibility study can employ certain advice. A few of them are as follows −

• Obtain input on the unique concept from the appropriate parties

• To make sure your data is reliable, analyze and test it

• Consider doing market research or a market survey to help with data collection

• Make operational, organizational, or business plans

• Create an income prediction statement

• Create a balance sheet forecast

• Determine in advance whether or not to move forward with implementing the approach

Conclusion

An essential stage that can help project managers decide if they want to invest money and time in a project is conducting a feasibility study. It can provide the management of a firm with crucial information that might enable them to decide against undertaking a risky business venture. An additional benefit of conducting a feasibility study is that it supports the development of new businesses by supplying details on issues like how a firm will operate, the challenges it may encounter, its rivals, and how much and where it will receive finance. The purpose of feasibility studies is to convince lenders and banks that investing money in a particular business endeavor makes sense using these marketing techniques.