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Antonino Zichichi

CONSULTING

Feasibility study: How to start a digital project the right way.

A clear and predictable method for setting guidelines for a digital project.

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1) Feasibility study what is what is needed and how can it help my business

Every business entering the world of digital faces doubts and insecurities about the appropriateness and nature of digitization.*

These doubts are physiological: investing in the development of an app or any digital service represents** an important growth opportunity but can also carry risks, like any investment.

It is for this reason that among the services offered by specialized agencies are the feasibility studies: preliminary investigations that help build and well define a roadmap to refer to during the entire process of your app development and that will also improve** the communication between company and developers by establishing a set of requirements on the basis of which to build an investment plan.

In this article we will explain everything you need to know about feasibility studies: what they are, what they are for, and how to turn them into concrete development plans.

2) What is a feasibility study?

A feasibility study is the preliminary stage of digital service development processes that consists of a timely analysis and assessment of **the economic dimension,**the implementation complexity, technological requirements and the presence of possible alternatives for the realization of a pre-identified project, to which concreteness is provided by making explicit and systematizing all the conditions and risks that might be hiding in a given project, but also by analyzing alternative strategies for the realization of business objectives.

This translates into thinking about concrete strategies for realizing different project hypotheses, illustrating the process that leads from the current state to the final state, i.e., the set goal.

While conducting a feasibility study, it is of fundamental importance to assess the soundness of the proposed technical/organizational solutions, especially in relation to the economic and timing of implementation.

It will be necessary to compare different options with each other and make explicit the preferential criteria for undertaking a certain strategy over another.

3) Why conduct a feasibility study before investing in an application?

A feasibility study can take a different form depending on the subject matter.

However, all studies have commonalities such as: analysis of the current situation, definition of requirements, specifications and implementation methods, risk analysis, proposed designs, a cost-benefit analysis and, finally, final recommendations.

Feasibility studies are the main tool needed to optimize the essential planning, programming and design phase of all development projects.

In the simplest terms, a feasibility study is essential before investing in an application because it can provide excellent guidance in determining the success, or otherwise, of the investment. Indeed, investing without careful planning carries great risks for any kind of economic initiative.

4) How to turn the feasibility study into a development plan

Once the feasibility study has been produced and all the different variables that may affect its success have been analyzed, we move on to the development plan.

Since this is an app, the first phase of development will involve analysis and strategy, which concerns the definition of target and competitors, impact and objectives of the project.

The second phase consists of drawing up a list of desired UX and UI features, which is basically about making explicit all the desired features and structure of the app itself.

Having clarified these preliminary goals, we will move on to deciding what type of app to develop and the operating system to employ: whether a web app accessible via the Internet, a native app that operates across individual devices, and a hybrid app that exists on both mediums.

The latter have a flexible operating system but may not work on some devices, cannot operate online, and are on average slower than native apps.

At this point "personas" or types of target users who might use the app will be defined, considered by gender, interests and age. The next phase concerns the structuring of a visual navigation flow to make explicit the wireframe architecture.

Having established this structure, the System Integration phase will connect the various subsystems of the future app together by making sure that they work in unison, organically.

This phase will be followed by the actual development of the app, which will see code writing and all the final stages of development such as usability testing, layout adjustments, and bug fixes.

5) Conclusions

Before investing in an app, the development of which, as we have seen, is a highly articulated and often complex process, the feasibility study is therefore an essential element,** allowing businesses to know precisely all the details of the itinerary that will take them from their current state to the realization of their goals.

It should not discourage the apparent complexity of the process: precisely addressing every possible critical issue in the preliminary stages of any initiative will enable it to unfold without unforeseen setbacks in the future.

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