Professional and Technical Writing/Feasibility

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[edit] Feasibility Report

What is a Feasibility Report/Study? What you should include when putting together a feasibility study/report.

• A feasibility report is a testimony that attempts to create some sort of action. Feasibility reports are created in order to persuade/help the decision makers to choose between a few available options.

What is a feasibility study? A feasibility study or report is a way in evaluating the practicality and desirability of a certain project. Before a company invests time and money into a project, they want to have an idea of how their change would do. Sometimes companies want to understand input costs, the amount of research that will need to be done, or even the marketability of a certain project. With input prices, it is essential that companies understand (even before they put time and research into the project) how much it would cost to go through with their product. Companies also like to know that if they put time into research and eventually go through with their change or promotion of a product, how the public/people will react to the change. Will people be fighting over the new product or will it fall through? The purpose of feasibility studies is to provide companies information and analysis on whether or not you or your company should pursue this course of action.

Feasibility reports are usually used to sway decision makers towards one direction or the other. Many times even if there is only one course of action, but their needs to be a second course of action.

What to consider in creating feasibility studies/reports?

It remains important to consider alternatives when you are creating a feasibility study. Decision makers in companies want to understand why they have to make a choice, and then why they should choose this certain option. Feasibility reports need to include detailed information on the problem that has presented itself to provide decision makers with a reason to consider further options.

Is your argument important and appropriate?

When deciding on whether or not your feasibility study is important you must first recognize the target audience or reader. For professional organizations people want your argument or study to be based around needs or aims of the organization and their future. In professional settings, it is also believed that those guiding points or criteria should be known by the people judging your study. In other words, make the study reasonable and have it relate to what you are looking at implementing or the change you want to see happen. Facts can make your argument important. However, decision makers want to know that your sources are reliable. They want to be assured that the information they are receiving is from a credible source in the industry. This may turn out to be the most important aspect of any feasibility study and report. Due simply to the fact that any information you gather, no matter the presentation, can be ruined if you're lacking information about your sources or in the worst case if your sources are just flat out not credible.

What to consider about your alternatives?

It is important to understand how your alternatives compare to the criteria you set in place. In most cases your readers will want to understand how your results compared to others. This allows them to make an educated decision based simply around facts and results. Anderson considers this to be the heart of any feasibility report.

What have you found against your alternatives?

Based on experiments and finding results about possible alternatives and how they fare, it is important to draw up conclusions about the alternatives. This is not made to bash other options or products, but is made to set your product or idea apart. You should include general knowledge or conclusions about what each product does well. This remains an important part because once again decision makers need a basis for comparison, they need a reason to select your idea compared to the alternatives and may already be set in place, or in the near future.

What should you throw into a conclusion?

In the end state what the decision makers should do. Compare statistics and data and help the readers understand the logical choices and the course of action that would be the cause of selecting one option over the other. State your expertise on the subject matter and help them make their choice. Because of your expertise they will most likely take your side if you present the argument completely and explain the results. They will select your view if it is somewhat logical.

[edit] Important Features of a Basic Feasibility Report

Below is the seven element of a feasibility report:

• Introduction - You need to persuade the decision maker to even consider any sort of alternative.
• Criteria - You must a specifically map out the criteria of the other options so that it is practical and makes sense. You can present this criteria in your feasibility report in one of two ways. The first way to present criteria is to make them a totally separate and section of your paper. This is best when you have a extensive report and you need to go in-depth with the explanation. The second way to present criteria is to incorporate it in different areas of your report. However, it is important to realize that whichever strategy you chose make sure that the criteria is introduce early in the report.
• Method - It is very important to present facts that are accurate and relevant. You should state the reliable sources you used and what method they came from (internet,interview, book, etc.).
• Overview of alternative options - You must underline the key features, make sure they are easy to understand and presented in a friendly layout.
• Evaluation - This should be the bulk of your report, you must evaluate the options using the criteria you created.
• Conclusions - You need to state the conclusion you have came up with. How would you evaluate the alternatives.
• Recommendations - You need to use your experience and knowledge in order to state which option you think should be adopted.

• Note: All seven element outlined do not need to be included in the feasibility report depending on audience, circumstance, mission, etc. Also the element do not need to be in the exact order outlined above. Specifically the conclusion should be mentioned more than just at the end of the report. It should also be summarized in the beginning of the report and in the case the the feasibility report is long, it can be mentioned in the middle as well.

[edit] Criteria

What to consider in your feasibility study/report. As you begin formulating what you would like to consider you should realize that usually criteria works around one or more of the following questions.

Will your plan or course of action really do what is desired?

This is often seen on the technical sides. What you have to ask yourself is whether or not your implementation or change really makes that much of a difference. Let’s say you are looking to improve an aspect of your company. Will your change really improve the proficiency and speed of what their trying to do. Or will you find in your study that the change actually slows down production or the efficiency of the company’s workers. This is important to predict beforehand because sometimes an improvement in the workplace is not always an improvement in how a company works. But many of these factors you will not notice until after you complete your study. And in the worst case you may not see negative ailments until after the plan is implemented.

What will it take to implement your course of action?

Even though your plan of action may seem correct and efficient on paper, it may not be practical towards your line of work. You must take into account the circumstances that arise in every aspect of a professional setting. What you may find is that in one field your plan may be extremely successful, but in another may be a bust. This can also take place from company to company. As you work at different companies along the same field, you will begin to understand what can be successful in one workplace that may not work in another. Sometimes you have to take into account the amount of changes that will need to be implemented for your plan. Do you need to go through extensive changes in operations, or make upgrades to current equipment or materials that are currently in use or in stock? Sometimes the amount of money that needs to be put into a new project may be much more than the actual amount of benefit that would be received from the changes. You must consider your plan as a cost-benefit analysis.

Cost of implementation.

This may become the biggest factor in any business decision. How much will it cost? In not only business, but any professional field, the benefits must outweigh the costs in any decision. This is even the case when deciding to work on one aspect of a project compared to the other. When forming criteria for a feasibility report you must understand the costs if all went as planned. Then you might even want to find out what the cost would be if you had minor or major setbacks. It is important to understand the costs because unless the benefits outweigh the costs, a company will most likely not go through with your proposed plan of action. Also it is important to look into the future of the company. Maybe your plan of action will not be beneficial for the first year in existence, but what about the years following that? This must be consider because like any other decision in business, the original fixed cost may be high but the marginal gains may be high. In that case it may be a good decision for the company to make change if it is beneficial for the future. Think about health care companies. Would it be beneficial for a company to invest in new equipment even though the upright payment is very high?

Is your idea/product desirable?

This is as simple as is your plan going to sell. Will people want to overextend themselves for change, or will their reject what you are trying to do? Sometimes a change or solution must be more than just effective and affordable. You must consider the consumers or and people that will be changing. Sometimes many feasible courses of action do not succeed simply because they create effects that drive the consumers away. Because of this, the product or plan does not sell. These undesirable side effects can be as simple as tearing away employee morale. Sometimes even though a plan is promoting and expected to increase productivity, how will the employees react? Many times companies overlook how their employees are going to react to change. But the fact of the matter is that the only way to increase production is to keep employees happy. If they are not pushed to improve the company and their own status then they simply will not find change necessary.