Feasibility Study

Feasibility Study is define as the process of planning to develop a new system or improve an existing system The process of evaluating the options to try and build a new system and which would be the most suitable and cost effective solution for that organization and arriving at the best solution is what doing a feasibility study is all about

Why Feasibility Study Required

Feasibility Study is done to find out whether for the system that is proposed will be :
Possible ( to build it with the given technology and resources ) Affordable ( given the time and cost constraints of the organization ) Acceptable ( for use by the eventual users of the system )

Preliminary Investigation
Feasibility Study An important outcome of the preliminary investigation is determining whether the system requested is feasible or not The major purposes of this study are listed below Identify the responsible users and develop an initial scope of the system Identify current deficiencies in the users environment Determine Objectives for the new system Determine whether it is feasible to automate the system and , if so , suggest some acceptable options

Three Major Areas to consider

While determining the feasibility of a project
Technical Feasibility : current technical resources is

capable Economic Feasibilty : Financial Feasibility , basic resources to consider Management time Time spent by the systems analysis team Cost of doing the full systems study Estimated cost of hardware Estimated cost of software / software development Operational Feasibility : is dependent upon determining human resources for the project

Documenting of the Feasibility Study

The document to be produced at the end of this activity is called Feasibility Study Report

The Contents of this report is

Project

Name and Description Implementation Environment Management Summary and recommendations Alternatives System Description Consequences of Rejection Cost benefit analysis

Documenting of the Feasibility Study

The Contents of this report is - Contd

Estimated cost of the proposed system Anticipated benefits of the proposed system Staff required for the proposed system A plan to implement the proposed system Evaluation of technical risk Legal ramifications Other project specific topics

Fact Finding Techniques

The following fact finding techniques used
Interviews best source of qualitative information Interviews could be Structured Open response format Questions answered in ones own words Close response format set of prescribed answers Unstructured Questions are worded to suit respondent Questionnaires Collection of data from large number of persons Need to be printed and hence it is a costly method Record Review Provide valuable information about organisations and operations written policy manuals , regulations , standard operations procedures Observation Watching the object system in process to note and record the facts and events about their operation

Introduction to Software Engineering

Software Engineering is a field of computer science that deals with the building of large complex systems

Software Engineering is the application of science and mathematics by which the capabilities of computer equipment are made useful to man via computer programs , procedures and associates
The basic goal of software engineering is to produce high quality software at low cost

Characteristics of software
Software is developed or engineered it is not manufactured
Software is highly malleable Software does not wear out Most Software is created from scratch and not assembled from existing components

The three approaches to

Software Systems Development
The Structured Approach Information Engineering Approach The Object Oriented Approach

The Structured Approach

Structured techniques made their first appearance in the late 1960 , with the introduction of structured programming It is more a function oriented methodology than a data oriented methodology

Information Engineering Approach

Data plays the dominant role and functions play a subordinate role
While structured methodologies are used to model individual programs or systems IE is perceived as a higher level methodology that is intended to first model the enterprise and then model the individual systems that constitute the organisation

The Object Oriented Approach

Object Oriented programming technologies existed in 1960s (Simula Language ) Have been emphasised with object oriented analysis and design techniques proposed by Grady Booch , peter Coad and Edward Yourdon Become easier with C++ , Objective-C , Smalltalk and Ada.