System Analysis and Design Lecture 3

System Analysis and Design

• System analysis and design involves planning, management, and progress tracking.
• A 72% progress was reported.

Lecture 3: Feasibility Analysis

• The lecture focused on feasibility analysis.
• Learning objectives included creating system requests, describing technical, economic, and organizational feasibility assessments, and performing feasibility analysis.

In the Last Lecture

• The previous lecture covered system request creation.
• The completed system request is submitted for steering/approval committee consideration.
• The steering committee is composed of individuals responsible for information systems decisions, senior executives, or other relevant decision-making bodies.
• This committee reviews the request, and determines if the project warrants investigation based on provided information.
• If it does, the next step is to conduct a feasibility analysis.

Feasibility Analysis

• It guides organizations in deciding whether or not to proceed with a project.
• Important project risks must be identified and managed.
• It involves analyzing technical, economic, and organizational feasibility.
• The results of this three-part analysis are combined into a feasibility study delivered to the approval committee at the beginning of the project's initiation.

Technical Feasibility

• Focuses on the extent to which a system can be successfully designed, developed, and installed.
• It involves addressing the question, "Can we build it?"
• Factors such as familiarity with the application and technology, project size, and system compatibility create risks.
• Larger projects, lack of familiarity with an application, and new technology increase these risks.
• A system that uses existing technology presents fewer risks than a completely new system.

Economic Feasibility

• It determines the financial viability of a project.
• It uses a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate project costs and benefits.
• This analysis assesses if the project should be developed.
• Organizational resources are finite, and factors should be considered when evaluating projects.
• The detailed analysis depends on the project's cost.

Steps to Conduct a Feasibility Analysis

• It involves identifying costs and benefits, assigning values, and determining cash flow.
• Evaluating the project's economic value, calculating ROI, BEP, and NPV.
• Costs and benefits often include development costs, operational costs, tangible benefits, and intangible benefits.

Organizational Feasibility

• It evaluates the system's adoption and integration into the organization.
• Stakeholders are identified for analysis; stakeholders are people, groups, or organizations affected or potentially affecting a new system.
• Key stakeholders include project champions, user groups, and organizational managers.
• System users must be considered and involved.

Case Study: Tune Source

• The case study involved reviewing a digital music download project.
• The steering committee prioritized this project.
• The feasibility study report was prepared for the project.
• Economic feasibility analysis and supporting documentation are in appendix A1.