Technical Feasibility of Software

12/26/23, 5:44 PM What is Technical Feasibility of Software?
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Technical Feasibility Study in Software

Engineering: Things to Consider Before
Development Starts
11 min read Business, Engineering Last updated: 26 Apr, 2023 No Comment Share
In 2021, to the great disappointment of space exploration fans,

NASA postponed a long-awaited return to the Moon by at least a
year. The authorities admitted that the previous 2024 deadline for
Contents
human landing “...was not grounded in technical feasibility.”
Feasibility study: why you need it
Tech miscalculations are not unique to ambitious, state-backed What is technical feasibility
space endeavors. They may occur with initiatives of any size if their
Technical feasibility study example
feasibility is not thoroughly analyzed. This article explains what
Feasibility testing and demonstration
aspects to examine before starting a software project. Don’t be like
NASA; make sure that your product launch will succeed! Ready, steady… launch! Or when technical feasibility
matters most

https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/technical-feasibility/ 1/22
Feasibility study: why you need it No Comment Share
A feasibility study, or feasibility analysis, assesses the viability of

the project idea from different perspectives. Its goal is to help top Stay tuned to the latest industry updates.
managers narrow down alternatives and make informed go/no-go
decisions. Enter your email
By clicking subscribe you confirm, that you understand and agree to

Five key areas to be covered in an overall feasibility study are the Privacy Policy
hidden in the acronym TELOS, popular with product and project
managers.
Five types of feasibility to be explored.

As the picture above shows, TELOS stands for the following
aspects.
Technical feasibility inspects whether software can be built at all 

with available tools and experts.
Economic feasibility examines the costs and financial benefits of

the project. To determine economic feasibility, a rough order of
magnitude (ROM) estimate is commonly performed.
Legal feasibility makes sure that your product complies with all
regulations and doesn’t break any law. For example, medical
software dealing with protected health information (PHI) must meet
HIPAA rules. Besides that, you have to explore what legal risks
there are and how they can impact your project.
Operational feasibility explores how a new project will impact daily

processes in your company, what procedures should be
implemented, and what efforts should be taken to maintain it. Say
you’re going to launch a global e-commerce platform. Then, you
need to have local warehouses, local service teams, and, in some
cases, even local websites in each country. It’s very difficult to
realize operationally and might make no sense at all — though the
initial idea looks commercially attractive and technically feasible.
Scheduling feasibility gives you a notion of realistic deadlines and

helps stick to them.
Obviously, a thorough feasibility study can’t be done without deep

knowledge of finance, technologies, and legislation. No wonder
that most research studies are often conducted by outside
consultants.

When your feasibility consultant is too optimistic:)

In this article, we’ll concentrate on the technical side of feasibility,
AltexSoft's area of expertise. That said, we can’t entirely decouple
the tech aspect from other analysis aspects of the analysis as they
all move forward hand in hand, impacting one another.
What is technical feasibility

In software engineering, technical feasibility (TF) is the most time-
consuming and complex part of the full feasibility analysis. So,
when speaking about the viability of digital products, we mean
their TF in the first place.
As we mentioned before, technical feasibility explores the

likelihood of a project being completed from a technical
perspective. Yet it inevitably takes into account and depends on
the available budget, timeframes, legal constraints, and post-
development operations (support and maintenance.)

Feasibility is assessed at the ideation phase of product

development, after gathering early project requirements — namely
functional requirements, captured by business analysts and

describing features of the solution; and
non-functional requirements, usually collected by a software
architect and related to the properties of the system — like
performance, scalability, and so on.
The feasibility study occurs at the pre-development stage.

If at the end of the day, feasibility is confirmed, the analysis serves
as a foundation for a business plan that explains how to take the
project from concept to reality. If it is not confirmed, you need to
manage the client’s expectations and offer alternative ways to
achieve business goals.
Tech feasibility assessment is not a matter of a single day. So, for

convenience, we divided this process into two large stages: a
theoretical study and practical testing with real people involved.

Technical feasibility study

example
A technical feasibility study is an in-depth examination of tech
factors related to the intended project. It touches on things like
hardware and software components,

technical risks and constraints,
compatibility with other IT systems, and
capabilities of your engineering team.
The study involves a sequence of steps we’ll examine in more
detail.
Consider implementation alternatives
Experts involved: a software or solution architect, other tech leads.
The first thing to do is to consider implementation options. Here,

we typically have several alternatives.
Do nothing. Sometimes, a thorough technical inspection reveals

that the best option in the current situation is to remain with the
existing system. Innovations may entail unjustified risks and
unnecessary wastes of money while promising just a bit of
improvement.
Select out-of-the-box software and configure it for your needs.


Often, the most meaningful choice is to buy an off-the-shelf tool or

integrate with a white-label solution, and adjust it to your needs.
It’s especially valid for сommon, widely-used apps like CRM or

huge, complex infrastructures that take years to build from the
ground up. Examples of massive, hard-to-develop platforms are
property management systems for hotels, passenger service
systems for airlines, and electronic health record systems for
hospitals.
When selecting a ready-to-use product the following aspects

should be carefully assessed:
performance,
ease of learning
ease of deployment,
level of support provided by the vendor,
compatibility with your other key technologies,
scalability, and
licensing options.
Though in this scenario, you don’t need to design everything from
scratch, there is still plenty of work to do: implementing and testing
APIs, modifying and enhancing code according to your needs (in
the case of open-source software), and ensuring that all
components work as a single whole.
Read our articles about Sabre API integration and Amadeus API
integration which explain that sometimes connecting to third-party
platforms takes months and requires not only technical skills but 
also deep domain expertise.
If you are in the hospitality business, you may be interested in the

article on how to integrate with Opera PMS.
Build a custom system. Custom development allows you to

accurately meet all business requirements. If it’s feasible — or can
be completed within the given time and budget frame — the next
step would be investigating technologies and architecture to be
used in the project.
Assess hardware and software environment
Experts involved: a software or solution architect, system analysts,

IT engineers.
Whether you opt for a ready-to-use product or a custom solution,

you must inventory the organization’s hardware and software to
answer the question: “Is it possible to run the project using the
existing environment?”
Modern systems are built with an eye to customer growth, which

means handling more and more daily transactions. But that won’t
be feasible without deploying extra servers, purchasing more
storage space, and taking other measures to increase the capacity
of the IT infrastructure.
For 24/7 service providers like online travel agencies or digital 

banking platforms, it’s critical not only to have enough processing

power but also to permanently stay online. In this case, you must
establish network redundancy.
A straightforward way to do it is to install at least one duplicate of

the current hardware system (including servers, routers, and other
devices) and run them side by side. Should the first traffic path fail,
the second will instantly take over.
Besides stable Internet connection, many businesses have

become heavily dependent on low network latency. This relates to
user-generated content (UGD) streaming, online trading and
gaming, video conferencing, and other interactive services where
every millisecond of delay matters. For achieving the fastest
response possible, you have to host servers as close to end users
as possible which may lead to rebuilding the entire IT
infrastructure.
The promising method for fixing latency issues in IoMT (Internet of

Medical Things) and IoT systems is edge computing. It distributes
some computing jobs across microservers, located near data
sources (sensors and smart devices) instead of fully relying on
remote centralized processors. On the dark side, the technology is
still immature, entailing greater risks of failure.
There are a couple of other things to be checked when reviewing

the IT infrastructure. The first one is security vulnerabilities, which
are especially critical if you plan to store and process sensitive

information. Also, consider the ability of the systems to interface

with the equipment and software from third-party vendors.
Create several tech designs
Experts involved: a software or solution architect, tech leads,

external consultants.
A rule of thumb for a feasibility study is to present several possible

designs that roughly represent the system to be built. Each should
give a holistic view of a solution and cover
a high-level app architecture with major modules and

interactions between them;
data architecture, or how data will be gathered, processed, and
stored;
integrations with external data sources, services, and systems;
and
security mechanisms.
Each of the tech alternatives must be studied for all types of
feasibility — economic, legal, operational, and scheduling.
Analyze tech risks and limitations
Experts involved: a software or solution architect, tech leads.
Besides feasibility aspects, analyze technical risks related to each

option. They include but are not limited to 
third-party dependencies,
early adoption of immature technologies,
use of tools new to your team, and
dealing with legacy systems.
Finally, you need to look into the technical limitations and pitfalls of
proposed architectures. Namely, pay attention to
performance constraints,
implementation complexities,
scalability concerns (will a system be able to handle a growing
amount of work?),
expendability concerns (will a system be able to support new
functionality, interfaces, etc.?), and
maintenance and support complexities.
Once all critical information is in place, all that is left to do is to
decide on the best option.
Compare solutions and choose the best one
Experts involved: all the above-mentioned specialists.
To compare solutions and choose the optimal alternative, you may

build a decision matrix.

Comparison of possible alternatives.

According to the table above, Solution 1 may come with better 
performance but will cost twice as much as Solution 2. Besides, it
poses maintenance challenges which entail hiring new experts or

using external support services. And this makes Solution 1 less
attractive in terms of operational feasibility. Note though that the
decision matrix is given as an example, it’s not a strict guideline to
follow.
Write a feasibility report
Experts involved: all of the above-mentioned specialists.
The logical outcome of the feasibility study is a document called a

feasibility report. It can look different from company to company
but typically contains the following sections.
Overview. Briefly explain the purpose of the project, its scope, and
the problems it is expected to solve. Specify which aspects won't
be covered and why.
Current situation description. Outline the current IT infrastructure

and its problems. Describe the hardware, OS version, and
characteristics of software to be replaced or integrated with a new
tool.
Requirements. Include a brief summary of functional and non-

functional requirements. You may attach or give a link to software
requirements specification documents related to the project so
that a reader could look through them without going any further.

Analysis of possible alternatives. Specify possible solutions to

achieve a project’s goal including tools already existing in the
market. Define major criteria to evaluate them — say, alignment
with the desired objective, costs, legal fit, etc. Highlight the option
that you recommend and give reasons for your choice. Make a
point of benefits to be achieved when implementing the chosen
alternative.
Risk analysis. List possible risks and constraints including legal

ones related to the selected alternative (or alternatives) and
suggest ways to eliminate them.
Requirements. Include a brief summary of functional and non-

functional requirements. You may attach or give a link to software
requirements specification documents related to the project so
that a reader could look through them without going any further.
Recommendations. Summarize the key findings of your study and

advise the course of action.
Feasibility testing and

demonstration
Once the winning designs are determined and a feasibility report
is written, you can further mitigate possible risks by testing the
product hypothesis via 
proof of concept (POC),

a prototype, and
a minimum viable product or MVP.
While these terms are often mixed up and even used
interchangeably, in fact, the processes behind them happen at
different stages of product development and vary in objectives
and resources involved.
Only the proof of concept directly relates to the technical feasibility

assessment. But we’ll also eyeball the other two options as they
are closely interconnected and pursue the same overall goal —
testing before investing.

How proof of concept differs from a prototype and MVP.
Build proof of concept to confirm tech feasibility
Experts involved: business analysts, UX/UI designers.
Proof of concept is a rough representation of a future product that


is based on a feasibility study and targets internal stakeholders
and investors. It’s the cheapest and fastest way to confirm that the
selected solution will behave as expected in a particular
environment. If not, you might opt for an alternative or just discard
the idea.
There are no strict rules about what the POC must look like. It may
come in the form of technical documentation, a presentation, a
diagram, a wireframe (non-functional sketch of the future user
interface), or their combination. In most cases, proof of concept
doesn’t involve coding.
Doing a PoC is not mandatory, but is strongly recommended for

the development of new products not currently available on the
market. After proof of concept, you may move forward to the next
testing method — prototyping.
Build a prototype to test an interface
Experts involved: business analysts, UX/UI designers, software

developers.
A prototype is a low-cost, low-functionality, and low-engineering

version of a future system. It turns proof of concept into a demo
tool with a clickable design, visualizing a user flow. This way, you
can show both investors and end customers how the product will
look and feel. Feedback from live people will help you quickly
identify and fix design flaws.

To dive deeper into the process, read our articles on prototyping

and functional prototype.
Build an MVP to check market viability
Experts involved: project managers, software developers.
An MVP is a workable version of the system built on proof of

concept, prototype, and software requirements specifications. It
contains major features that solve user problems and is released
to the market to collect feedback from a wider audience, measure
results and, if necessary, make changes to the initial plan
accordingly.
To learn more, read our dedicated article on a minimum viable

product, its types, and building stages.
Ready, steady… launch! Or when

technical feasibility matters most
How deep must feasibility research be to ensure that things will go
right, with no nasty surprises at the development stage? The more
innovative your project is, the more details your study should
contain, period. TF analysis is especially critical when you get into
new product development (NVP), 

adding new features, or

fundamental redesign — say, you’re going to break your
monolithic system into microservices.
Let’s put it another way. Are there cases when a feasibility
assessment makes no sense? Definitely, yes, but you can count
them on the fingers of one hand.
1. You are pretty sure that your project is feasible.

2. You ran a similar project or similar study in the past three years.
3. Your project is small and quite simple, with minimal impact on
long-term business goals.
In all other scenarios, a feasibility study is a must-have step
allowing you to understand whether the software is worth
investing in at all and how many alterations in the initial plan will
cost you.

The popular Interstellar meme starring Matthew McConaughey gives us a clue why
a feasibility study matters.
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12/26/23, 5:44 PM What is Technical Feasibility of Software?

Email: Phone: +1 (877)

Technical Feasibility Study in Software

In 2021, to the great disappointment of space exploration fans,

Feasibility study: why you need it No Comment Share

A feasibility study, or feasibility analysis, assesses the viability of

By clicking subscribe you confirm, that you understand and agree to

Five types of feasibility to be explored.

Technical feasibility inspects whether software can be built at all 

with available tools and experts.

Economic feasibility examines the costs and financial benefits of

Operational feasibility explores how a new project will impact daily

Scheduling feasibility gives you a notion of realistic deadlines and

Obviously, a thorough feasibility study can’t be done without deep

When your feasibility consultant is too optimistic:)

What is technical feasibility

As we mentioned before, technical feasibility explores the

Feasibility is assessed at the ideation phase of product

functional requirements, captured by business analysts and

The feasibility study occurs at the pre-development stage.

Tech feasibility assessment is not a matter of a single day. So, for

Technical feasibility study

hardware and software components,

Consider implementation alternatives

Experts involved: a software or solution architect, other tech leads.

The first thing to do is to consider implementation options. Here,

Do nothing. Sometimes, a thorough technical inspection reveals

Select out-of-the-box software and configure it for your needs.

Often, the most meaningful choice is to buy an off-the-shelf tool or

It’s especially valid for сommon, widely-used apps like CRM or

When selecting a ready-to-use product the following aspects

also deep domain expertise.

If you are in the hospitality business, you may be interested in the

Build a custom system. Custom development allows you to

Assess hardware and software environment

Experts involved: a software or solution architect, system analysts,

Whether you opt for a ready-to-use product or a custom solution,

Modern systems are built with an eye to customer growth, which

For 24/7 service providers like online travel agencies or digital 

banking platforms, it’s critical not only to have enough processing

A straightforward way to do it is to install at least one duplicate of

Besides stable Internet connection, many businesses have

The promising method for fixing latency issues in IoMT (Internet of

There are a couple of other things to be checked when reviewing

information. Also, consider the ability of the systems to interface

Create several tech designs

Experts involved: a software or solution architect, tech leads,

A rule of thumb for a feasibility study is to present several possible

a high-level app architecture with major modules and

Analyze tech risks and limitations

Experts involved: a software or solution architect, tech leads.

Besides feasibility aspects, analyze technical risks related to each

Compare solutions and choose the best one

Experts involved: all the above-mentioned specialists.

To compare solutions and choose the optimal alternative, you may

Comparison of possible alternatives.

poses maintenance challenges which entail hiring new experts or

Write a feasibility report

Experts involved: all of the above-mentioned specialists.

The logical outcome of the feasibility study is a document called a

Current situation description. Outline the current IT infrastructure

Requirements. Include a brief summary of functional and non-

Analysis of possible alternatives. Specify possible solutions to