Feasibility Study Essay Example

Feasibility Study Essay Example Feasibility Study Essay Feasibility Study Essay Oxford business institute has been agued by some analysts that the challenge being faced does not require textbooks solutions. Other analysts argue that a more practical approach has to be adopted if all their survival has to guarantee. Use of off the shelf system in Colleges had become a norm in Colleges as directors in these Colleges were very much interested in improving the security of their systems and it is these application software programs obtained from foreign countries which had proved to be better in terms of security.This was because most College institutions had not done much in terms of system development. The problems bedeviling the current systems in our College institutions in relation to the current economic solutions have justified the development of bespoke systems that will be able to address the College issues across the industry regardless of the charges that may be faced. 2. 0 SCOPE OF THE STUDY It is hoped that this study will serve as an important in an attempt to improve the effectiveness and performance of the systems used in our College institutions.From this study the benefits and problems associated with the use of bespoke systems in the market are going to be determined. This study will provide alternative suggestions and or solutions to the problems associated with the failure to recognize the importance of using bespoke systems in a turbulent macroeconomic environment. : It is hoped that this study will initial debate that is based on practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge found in different information Technology textbooks.It will also help employees and management in the education sector that systems design and development is a process and not just an event. 3. 0 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study aims to do the following: Improve the processing speed. It will improve the sharing of information between the College and other stakeholders. Promote understanding of why the information is needed and the purpose for which it is used. It will allow improved planning and decision making by providing individuals with secure access to appropriate, accurate, consistent and timely information whenever it will be needed. . 0 JUSTIFICATION Implementation of bespoke systems is widely being regarded as an answer to the prevailing macroeconomic challenges in the country the research was carried out to decide whether the project was justified and also to determine the objectives of the system. The main force driving the researcher to carry out the study is the increasing complexity in running the affairs of the College institutions due to the volatile macro-economic environment, which means the quality of decisions made determine the survival of such organization.As the administration department in Colleges deal with most of the assets of the firm in a volatile real time environment of fluctuating interest rates and market conditions, adequate internal and external controls are vital to the functioning of such an environment to reduce fraud. Thus the study aims to provide such controls. Losses are very detrimental to a College’s growth and survival, therefore the study aims to provide a solution that will reduce any losses that occur from the system used in the management funds and improve decision making in funds management operations. . 0 ASSUMPTIONS The system will be programmed using Visual Basic. All machines using this system must have at least Microsoft windows XP. That the use of bespoke system is a potential solution to challenges faced in the financial sector. The IT department will reserve enough HDD space on their Database server so that data can be processed via the terminal server. 6. 0 LIMITATIONS 1. The limitation is that the administrator is the main source of information for the user requirement of the system. 2.From questionnaires that are distributed some employees left some of the sections of the questionnaire blank and some supervisors who were interviewed were unable to answer some of the questions that were on the question guide. The researcher therefore draws his conclusion from those unanswered sections of the questionnaires and unanswered questions from structured question guide. 3. The student major challenges were monetary and time constraints. Time was of relevant importance, in that it was difficult to adhere to the project plan that was set out of the beginning of the project, owing to various constraints like project documentation. DETAILS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM Introduction This generally looks at the research methods used. The main focus is the data collection criteria used to collect data. Data was collected in at least one organization in each service category of the College services sector the purpose of the survey was basically to justify the need the development of a College management system. Extensive research was carried out on the development of a College management system. System development experts were consulted to give hints and guide lines and to solve problems which were faced by the researcher.Analysis of Current System The current system will make job much easier for the administrator, the will be no need for the administrator to take so much time in searching for a particular student, but she will simply type in the student course and student number. The student details will soon appear. The advantage of this system is that it eliminates time for the administrator. Having the new system will boost the administrator in terms of being updated to current technology. This will lift up the face of the college and the end user will show more enthusiasm because of its efficiency to the current system.The current system will increase performance on processes, end user flexibility on working with new system and mass storage space (database). The administrator does most of the work in the office . She records all the students that have registered and paid their installment. With that, she is able to calculate the student’s payments. Their records are also stored in folders by the administrator. The administrator also keeps records of the accounts of the college. Problems with the current System Expensive to maintain. May not fulfill the user requirements. Some of the resources may not be useful. Benefit of the new systemTangible benefits Reduced errors therefore minimizing the cost associated with the purchasing of stationery. Minimizes time wasting due to an organized system that will provide pre-printed list of customer’s details and contacts. No development time needed. Support is obtained from experts. The application has already been tested and approve. Elimination of job steps. Reduced expenses. Intangible benefits Improved employee morale. Improved customer goodwill. Improved employee morale. Services to be provided by the new system will be greatly improved since all necessary operations will be performed positively. Better decision making. Details of Study Undertaken Research Questions Have the College upgraded their system in the past one year? What are perceived benefits and costs of the proposed system? What objectives and business requirements must be supported by the new system? Is the new system going fit within the College’s framework? Does the firm’s budget and schedule accommodate for the development of the system posing any delay upon its operation? What security treats is associated with the proposed system? Is the system user friendly such that user and managers will accept its implementation? What should be the target population and sample size? What measuring instruments should be used? Which sampling method should be employed? What resources are required before the system is implemented? What is the proposed solution and how does it aid mana gement of funds and reduce fraud in the investment system? Research Design / Information Gathering A survey of the research was carried out which included interviews, questionnaires and observations. The main objective of the survey was to determine the effectiveness of the current system in the sector.This made up the feasibility study of the project. The researcher used the case study. The advantage of a case study is that it does not claim any particular method for data collection or analysis and it has certain characteristics of particularistic, descriptive, heuristic and inductive. Interviews carried were general in nature because they were meant to establish if the off-the –shelf system were performing to expectation. The other data collection was for the purpose of development of the system itself, for example database field required and the problems the system should solve.The questionnaire and interviews instruments were used to gather data. The design of the questio nnaire was guided by the desire to make it simple and easy to complete and easy to code and analyze. This was achieved by the use of closed ended questions and every effort was made to provide lists of response options except where opinions or ensure or personal explanations were needed. The wording of the questions was taken into consideration in making the questionnaire easy to understand and respond to.Provocative language was avoided to ensure cooperation of the respondents. The questionnaire covers the most important issue that concern performance appraisal. Care was taken not to make its brevity compromise the ultimate objective of gathering data from the respondents. Subjects The project was carried out at Oxford Business Institute of Swaziland, the College of interest and at the SMS . The SMS was chosen as a control because it uses the same College management system as Oxford’s College and that it is the second largest College institution in the country.In order for t he sample to be representative of the total population, the researcher had used the most notable sampling procedure of a stratified random sampling since the population under study contains same well defined groups or sub-population (which are called strata). In each stratum there would be homogeneity in terms of the variable under investigations such that variability in a stratum will be in the following categories that are as follows: Level of Computer Literacy Position Held Years of Experience Age Group Research InstrumentsThe researcher used the personal interviews for the managerial staff members and the questionnaires methods to collect data College Department staff members, as well as Record Inspection. The Appendixes section of this document contains some of the question asked to the relevant staff regarding the feasibility of the new project, limitations of the current system and the improvements expect to be implemented used to collect data. Interviews As an oral face- to- face communication, it provides to be one of the most reliable method of gathering information as it provides instant feedback.The other reason why this method was adopted is that it gives room for vague questions, as well as maintaining maximum attentions between the two parties involved. This helps the analyst by providing with deeper insight into the current system, in terms of understanding its strengths and weaknesses. Among the persons interviewed are; the Administrator who in fact is the user of the system, the Secretary and the Director. The reasons why Director was interviewed are quite variable. The analyst wanted to see how much value he gives to the system, as well as assessing the economic feasibility of the proposed system.The other reason why interview had been opted instead of the other fact gathering techniques is that, the analyst noticed that the Director is always busy, so for her to obtain instant feedback she had to carry out an interview. The reason behind in terviewing the Administrator range from the need to figure out the limitations of the current system, as well as to incorporate his suggests in the new system, as he is the direct user of the system. The other reason is for the analyst to know the system inputs, processing and nature of the output thereafter. Moreover as mentioned earlier on, among the persons interviewed is also the Director.The idea is that the analyst wanted to assess the social feasibility of the proposed system, as well as criteria that could be adopted to ensure maximum user co-operation with the new system. The other reason is for the analyst to know the scope of the system. The researcher had selected the personal interview as it is the most commonly used method of collecting data. The personal interview has the main advantages of the following: a)A high response rate, the researcher can persuade all members to respond including the most reluctant to answer the questions. )The researcher (interviewer) can ex plain any questions that the interviewee cannot understand. c)The researcher can check the answers to some questions by making a visual check of age, for example questions about their experience or life style if any exaggeration will be visibly obvious. d)More information can collected with other methods as generally more time will be devoted by interviewee to a personal interview. From the above points it can be noted that advantages outweigh the disadvantages hence the researcher has chosen this data gathering instrument.Observation on site Practical observation of the current system’s operating procedures was done. The purpose was for the analyst to gather as much information as necessary to aid him analyzing the current system. Observation on site also caters for some of the activities, which may be inexplicable to the user of the system. The analyst took four days and for each day he spent two and half-hours with the user of the system. Therefore the analyst found out th at the current system involves a lot of form handling.Realistically, it has also been found out that the system lacks structured design, in other words there was no any convention followed either, when capturing data into the system or when generating the reports. The researcher had also used questionnaire method to collect data from staff of College Departments its main advantages include. 1)The bias of an interviewer is removed. 2)The respondent is not asked to give instant replies and answers can be considered carefully and records consulted if necessary. 3)The sample can usually be collected from much wider area. )It is less costly method that the personal interview although the number of useful response received may make it expensive in the long run. However this data gathering instrument has its own disadvantages that are as follows: 1)There is usually a very poor respond rate. 2)Bias may be introduced because only a particular type of person may reply perhaps people such as p ensioners with plenty of time on their hands or people who simple enjoy filling in questionnaires. A greater danger is that only those who have particular interest in that subject being investigated will reply causing a biased response. )Nobody is on hand to explain questions so come may be incorrectly answered or not answered at all. Only very simple questions can be answered. 4)Questions may be filled in as team effort so that opinions several people embodied in one form. 5)There may be considerable however tried to counter most of the advantages of the questionnaire by constantly monitoring the movements of questionnaire and providing some assistance when required. Record Inspection / Reading Documentation Archival data as well as report generated by the current were inspected so as to figure out the input requirements and analyst how best to improve the output.The documents were obtained from the Director. Some of the reports used as samples are attached on Appendices section. D ata Collection Procedures The researcher distributed questionnaires to interested parties that include the representation of all students in the College from junior classes to senior classes. The researcher carried out the entire interview herself. Data presentation and Analysis procedure The finding of this research is presented using descriptive statistics that highlight the methods for organizing, displaying and describing data by making use of tables, diagrams and summary measures.Data presentation process To confirm that off the shelf system were falling to perform to expectations in the financial service sector at the moment such questions were asked 1)What shortcomings if any are you facing when using the current system? 2)Are you happy with the performance of the current system? 3)Does the current system solve the current problems arising in the industry? 4)In terms of efficiency does the current system improve or deteriorates and why? 5)Is the current system file based or c omputerized? 6)Are there any issues of data redundancy and duplication in the current system? )How flexible is the current system? 8)Does the current system allow data sharing and networking? 9)Are there any issues of paperwork involved in the current system? 10)General Which service type do you belong? Name of organization? Position held? Results of the questionnaires Of the 30 questionnaires all were completed and returned to the researcher giving 100% respond. However some employees felt that it was better to order for an upgrade of the current system than developing a bespoke system as these could compromise security in the operations system of the College services sector.One respondent was not sure whether developing a new system would make a different from upgrading the current system as she was mainly interested in reports only. The table graph below shows the results: Response Employees Develop a new system22 Upgrade the current system6 Not sure1 Questionnaires results Effic iency Respondents were asked whether the current system was efficient in performing expected tasks. Findings obtained are tabulated below: POSTGRADEEFFICIENTNOT EFFICIENTRESPONDENT (FREQUENY) Teachers11055 Secretary10044 Administrator9033 Front Office Clerk8223Portfolio 17022 Portfolio 26202 Finance Officer5325 Head of Department2022 Head of Department(College management system)1022 Total72228 Employees who are directly involved with the current system such as Administrator and Back Office clerks showed that they regarded the current system as inefficient and Heads of Departments including the College Principal also indicated their dissatisfaction. Portfolio executives and the Finance Officer who are mainly concerned with certain reports and not the functionality of the system indicated that they regarded the system as efficient.This means only 32% of the respondents regarded the system as efficient and 68% regarded it inefficient. Performance The question was if the employees were satisfied with the performance of the current off- the- shelf system that was currently being in the. The response was on a YES/NO basis. The summary of the response is tabulated below. Performance SatisfactionFrequency Yes4 No18 In Between7 Performance Satisfaction Pie Chart 62% of the respondents said they were not satisfied with the performance of the current system and 24% were not sure whether the system performance was satisfactory.Flexibility The respondents were asked whether the system was flexible enough to accommodate any system requirement that would arise in the industry. Findings on the research are shown below: Flexible2 Not flexible25 In between1 A very small percentage of 7% compared said the system was flexible compared to 89% who said the system was not flexible. The respondents who regarded the system as not flexible sighted the inability of the system to cater for latest request issued by Swaziland Revenue Authority. Demographic Characteristics of RespondentsThe demographic characteristics of the respondents are going to be looked in the section that follows. Distribution of Respondents by Age, Post and Sex The respondents were asked about tier grade and post in the questionnaires and during interviews. The following table shows the distribution of the respondents by Age, post and sex. POSTGRADESEXSEXRESPONDENTS (FREQUENY) MALEFEMALE Data capture clerks112 Supervisors101 Black office clerk93 Front office clerk81 Finance Executive 171 Finance Executive 262 Executive officer 153 Executive officer 241 Head of Department 132 Head of Department 222 Head of Department 12TOTAL91120 It is the evidence from the table above that the sample is representative of the population as all the grades that exist in the College management system Department are being represented. A substantial proportion of the sample comprises Clerks and Executive Officers 30% while more than 50% of the sample was in the grade of 2 to 10. There is also a gender balance as the proportion of male female respondents was almost similar with 45% male 55% female. The distribution of the sample by gender is also shown in the table below. Distribution of Respondents by their Level of EducationLevel of Education of respondents LEVEL OF EDUCATIONNO OF RESPONDENTS% AGE Ordinary Level14 Advanced Level27 Tertiary Education1`346 Degree1243 TOTAL28100 From the questionnaires and interviews that were distributed and conducted, it is evident that 46% of the respondents possess professional qualifications like Institute of Chartered Management and LCM and 43% are degree holders. This gives enough evidence that the respondents have a better understanding of the need of an efficient and effective system in organization. Histogram showing level of education of respondentsDistribution Of Respondents By Service Type SERVICE TYPEFREQUENCY% AGE Management414 Accounts519 Teaching725 621 All service type was fairly represented considering that the percentage different was just 10 % with the least represented with 14% and highly represented with 25%. Discussion and Interpretation From the analysis it can be clearly deduced that the off- the –shelf system are failing to perform to expectation. Questions were asked across important an area to prove that there was real needs to find other alternative and effective ways of solving the current problems facing the College service sector.The conclusion is that there’s an urgent need for the design development and implementation of a bespoke system that can be customized to meet the challenges arising in the financial services sector. Further development of these off-the –shelf systems has proved costly as evidenced by the high costs being incurred by Voctim Vocational Training in paying the software houses who develop and maintain their system. The idea of locally developing software will save the much needed foreign currency that could have been paid to external developers who most of the time overcharges their systems by quoting the exchange rate with a grey market rate.SMS is the tonic realization of the employees who have been affected in terms of efficiency by reverting back to paperwork after the current system could not handle further requests by the Swaziland Revenue. ALTERNATIVES TO THE SYSTEM Possible Solutions FEASIBILITY STUDY Six Test For Feasibility So far, we have defined feasibility analysis, and we have identified feasibility checkpoints during systems analysis. Feasibility can be viewed from multiple perspectives. Below we present six categories of feasibility tests. Operational feasibility is a measure of how well a solution meets he identified system requirements to solve the problems and take the advantage of the opportunities envisioned for the system. Cultural (or political) feasibility is a measure of how people feel about a solution and how well it will be accepted in a given organization climate. Technical feasibility is a measure of a practicall y of a specific technical solution and the availability of technical resources and expertise to implement and maintain it. Schedule feasibility is a measure of how reasonable the project time table is. Economic feasibility is the measure of the cost-effectiveness of a project or solution. Legal feasibility is a measure of how well a solution can be implemented within existing legal and contractual obligation. Actually, few systems are infeasible. Instead, different solution options tend to be more or less feasible than other. Let’s take a closer look at the four feasibility criteria. ?Operational feasibility Operational feasibility is the measure of how well a proposed system solves the problem and takes advantage of the opportunities identified during the scope definition and problem analysis phase and how well it satisfied the system requirements identified in the requirements analysis phase.Operational feasibility also asks if, given what is now known about the problem and the cost of the solution, the problem is still worth solving. ?Cultural (or political) feasibility This is related to operational feasibility. But where operational feasibility deals more with how well the solution will meet system requirement, cultural/political feasibility deals with how end users feel about the proposed system. You could say that operational feasibility evaluate whether a system can work, and cultural/ political feasibility ask whether a system will work in a given organizational climate.In an information age, knowledge is power. It is common for an information system to change the structure of how information is routed and controlled, changing to some power structure of the organization. Some users and managers may feel threatened and fight implementation of the system. Recognize that increasingly the culture of an organization is multicultural. Employees and divisions may have been merged in from different companies with widely varying perspective on how work should be structured and what information system should do and not do.With international organizations, and information system must also be accepted by multiple national cultures. The following questions address this concern. Does management support the system? How do the end users feel about their role in the new system? What end users or managers may resist or not use the system? Can this problem be overcome? If so, how? How will the working environment of the end user change? Can or will end users and management adapt to the change? ?Technical Feasibility Today, very little technically impossible. Consequently, technical feasibility looks at what is practical and reasonable.Technical feasibility addresses three major issues. 1. Is the proposed technology or solution practical? 2. Do we currently possess the necessary technology? 3. Do we possess the necessary technical expertise? Is the proposed Technology or Solution Practical? The technology for any defined solution is normal a vailable. The question is whether that technology is mature enough to be easily applied to our problems. Some firms like to use state-of-the art technology, but most firms prefer to use mature and proven technology. A mature technology has a larger customer base for obtaining advice concerning problems and improvements.Do we currently possess the necessary technology? Assuming the solution’s required technology is practical, we must next ask ourselves, is the technology available in our information system shop? If the technology is available, we must ask if we have the capacity. For instance, will our current printer be able to handle the new reports and forms required of a new system? If the answer to either of these questions is no, then we must ask ourselves, can we get this technology? The technology can be practical and available, and, yes, we need it. But we simply may not be able to afford it at this time.Although this argument borders on economic feasibility, it is tr uly technical feasibility. If we can’t afford the technology, then the alternative that requires the technology is not practical and is technically infeasible. Do we possess the necessary technical expertise? This consideration of technical feasibility is often forgotten during feasibility analysis. Even if organization has the technology, that doesn’t mean it has the skills required to properly apply that technology. For instance, organization has a database management system (DBMS).However, the analysts and programmers available for the project may not know that DBMS well enough to properly apply it. True, all information systems professionals can learn new technologies; however, that learners curve will impact the technical feasibility of the project – specifically, it will impact the schedule. ?Schedule Feasibility Given the available technical expertise, are the project deadlines reasonable – that is, what is the schedule feasibility of the project? Some projects are initiated with specific deadlines. It is necessary to determine whether the deadlines are mandatory or desirable.For instance, the project we want to develop a system to meet oxford’s reporting regulation may have a deadline that coincides with when the new reports must be initiated. Penalties associated with missing such a deadline may make meeting it mandatory. If the deadlines are desirable rather than mandatory, the analyst can propose alternative schedules. It is preferable (unless the deadline is absolutely mandatory) to deliver a properly functioning information system two months later than to deliver an error –prone, useless information system on time , While missing deadlines can be problematic, developing inadequate system can be disastrous.It’s a choice between the lesser of two evils. ?Economic Feasibility The button line in many projects is Economic Feasibility. During the early phases of the project, economic feasibility analysis amounts to little more than judging whether the possible benefits of solving the problem are worthwhile. Costs are practically impossible to estimate at that stage because the end users are requirements and alternative technical solutions have been identified, the analyst can weigh the costs and benefits of each alternative. This is called a costs benefit analysis. ?Legal Feasibility Information systems have a legal impact.First of all, there are copyright restrictions. For any system that includes purchased components, one has to make sure that the license arguments are not violated. For one thing this means installing only incensed copies. But licensed arguments and copy protection can also restrict how you integrate the data and processes with other parts of the system. If you are working with contract programmers, the ownership of the program source code and nondisclosure agreements have to be worked out in advanced. Union contracts can add constraints to the information system on how workers are paid and how their work is monitored.Legal requirements for financial reporting must be met. System requirements for sharing data with partners could even run up against antitrust laws. Finally, many information systems today are international in scope. Some countries mandate where data on local employees and local transactions must be stored and processed. ?The Button Line Operational and economic issues often conflict. For example, the solution that provides the best operational impact for end users may also be the most expensive and, therefore, the least economically feasible.The final decision can be made only by sitting down with end users, reviewing the data, and choosing the best overall alternative. Cost Benefit Analysis Techniques Economic feasibility has been defined as a cost benefit analysis. How can cost and benefit be estimated? How can cost and benefits be compared to determine economic feasibility? Most Colleges offer complete courses on these subj ects – courses on financial management, financial decision analysis, and engineering economics and analysis. The section presents an overview of the techniques. How much will the system cost? Cost fall into two categories.There are costs associated with developing system, and there are costs associated with operating a system. The former can be estimated from the outset of the project and should be refined at the end of each phase of the project. The latter can be estimated only after specific computer based solutions have been defined. The cost of developing an information system can be classified according to the phase in which they occur. System development costs are usually onetime costs that will not recur after the project has been completed. Many organizations have standard cost categories that must be evaluated.In the absence of such categories, the following lists should help: Personal costs- The salaries of system analysts, programmers, consultants, data entry perso nnel, computer operators, secretaries, and the like, who work on the project made up the personnel cost. Because