What Is Technical Feasibility? Meaning and Methods

You have a mindblowing idea for a new product. You come up with a product design.

What do you do next?

Do you directly start making the product for sale based on the design you just made?

But what if you face some technical difficulty leading to the complete dismantling and rebuilding of the product? This is where the Technical Feasibility assessment would do you a great favor!

One must start building a product after designing it, taking several other factors that require consideration for making the product, releasing it in the market, and upkeep.

This is where feasibility studies come into product development and management. It helps an organization gauge the viability of a product idea from multiple perspectives, providing a holistic understanding of the product. The critical role of feasibility studies is to make informed decisions in the preliminary stages of product development.

Let us now dive into the details of Technical feasibility.

What is Technical Feasibility?

The main intention behind conducting a technical feasibility study is to make informed decisions regarding production in the early stages of the Product life cycle so that major impactful technical obstacles are dealt with, and risks are managed efficiently.

A technical feasibility study is a crucial procedure in product development that answers critical questions regarding the implementation, production, and functioning of the product within the bounds of the organization’s existing resources. 

Some key elements which are assessed for technical feasibility include:

• Technological Stack
• Availability of resources
• Infrastructural support
• Integration and Compatibility
• Risk assessment
• Security and Compliance

To ensure an enriching and informative assessment, product managers work closely with the technical teams to understand the technical side of the product. Product managers can make informed decisions to manage future risks due to technical inadequacies by conducting a technical feasibility assessment. This would ensure successful product delivery and quality delivery.

Methods of Technical Feasibility Test

Technical feasibility studies for the evaluation of the viability of a product can be conducted using several methods. Listing some of the common ones below.

Proof of Concept

This method involves using a small-scale prototype to test the feasibility of certain chosen technical functions of the product only.

Technical Prototyping

This technical feasibility study involves using a Minimally Viable Product (MVP) to test the overall technical functioning of the products and their requirements.

Technical Spike

Technical spike is a time-boxed method used when only one or very few product features must be tested. This technical feasibility study uses continuous testing and experimentation to gain meaningful insights. 

Technology Evaluation

This is a unique technical feasibility method that involves testing technology, frameworks, databases, and tools to be used in product development. This study is usually undertaken to understand scalability, performance, security, and compliance.

Architectural Review

Such a technical feasibility study includes assessing the proposed product’s design. All minute parts of the invention, like data flow, interfaces, system components, etc., would be studied to gain insights into factors like Structural compliance, scalability, and potential risks.

Code Review and Technical Debt Analysis

It helps in studying technical feasibility by comparing the product’s existing and prosed codes. It reviews the code’s compatibility, maintainability, scalability, and performance.

Resource Assessment

This includes the evaluation of different kinds of resources available within the organization. Resources like skilled workforce, designers, developers, infrastructure, and other external third-party services.

Risk Analysis

The most extensively used method is a comprehensive method used to calculate the overall associated risks with the new product. It includes the study of the impact of technical failures, data security breaches, integration complications, and more.

Different organizations and teams adopt varying approaches based on their project requirements, product complexity, and resources to be studied. Ultimately, the end goal is to gather adequate insights and knowledge to make informed decisions regarding various questions of technical feasibility.

How to Conduct a Technical Feasibility Test?

Conducting a feasibility test is a systematic process involving several steps. The steps involved are given below:

Outline Technical Requirements

This can be achieved through cross-functional team collaborations by communicating with the design team, development team, and all stakeholders to pool in all the technical requirements. This will help assess areas of the technology stack, performance expectations, and all technical aspects.

Recognize Constraints and Assumptions

Identify any constraints that may directly impact the technical feasibility, like resource allocation, budget constraints, etc. All assumptions made during the study must be noted.

Formulate Evaluation Criteria

It is crucial to develop personalized evaluation criteria for technical feasibility tests so that the assessment is the most accurate and true to the proposed product.

Conduct research

Research and explore similar products to understand the technology and tools required, possible bottlenecks and risks, etc. This will also help single out best practices in the industry.

Proof of Concept

Use of prototype to experiment and document and validate technical findings. A technical spike or an MVP could be used to test the product’s single features.

Performance Testing

If applicable to a product, this step could be applied to evaluate factors that affect the performance and delivery of the product.

Resource and Security Assessment

This step encompasses the evaluation of the availability of resources like hardware, workforce, expertise, etc., and assessing security requirements entailing the new product.

Risk Analysis and Mitigation

Identification of potential risks and vulnerabilities while accommodating the new product. Simultaneously making a mitigation plan for any unforeseen setbacks.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Comparing the costs incurred in running the project against the potential returns from the product gives a fair understanding of the product’s financial viability.

Suggested Read: How to Perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis for Features

Documentation and Decision Making

The final step is to assemble all the results and learning from the above steps and make an informed decision considering the holistic view achieved from the Technical feasibility study.

Here are three essential questions to be answered include:

• Does the product offer returns above ROI?

• Do the expected rewards outweigh the potential risks?

• Is there a good growth potential? 

Factors to Consider When Assessing Technical Feasibility

For a holistic view of the technical aspects of product development, some key factors must be considered. These include:

Technology

Assessment of the required technology stack, programming languages, and tools are readily available to facilitate smooth product development and delivery.

Resource Pool

Along with technology, the availability of a skilled workforce with diverse expertise and knowledge is also a prerequisite for successful product development and its technical feasibility.

Scalability

It includes the ability of the product to accommodate future growth due to increasing user demand without major glitches in performance.

Integration and Compatibility

This ensures the system’s smooth functioning after the new product is integrated into the existing system. The new product must be compatible with the system in place.

Security

Identifying and evaluating security vulnerabilities to avoid situations like data breaches, loss of data, or severe system malfunction. Also must ensure compliance with regulations like data privacy policies.

Risk Analysis

Assessing the possible risks that could arise during product development, causing a pause in the product development process, and strategizing contingency plans for the same.

Monetary Constraints

The project’s budget is one of the most important factors to consider while doing a technical feasibility study. It is done to evaluate if the project will be completed within the set budget.

By now, it is clear that technical feasibility plays a critical role in the preliminary stages of product development and contributes significantly to mitigating risks throughout the process. To complete the circle of understanding technical feasibility, its meaning, and methods, here are a few more examples to enhance your knowledge.

• E-commerce website expansion- Technical feasibility study here would include analyzing the website’s capacity to support increased traffic and scalability issues, accommodation of cloud-based delivery hosting, and Content delivery networks (CDN).

• Blockchain Integration into a Product- Technical feasibility study for this project would involve questions regarding the organization’s expertise in handling blockchain transactions, the scalability of the chosen network, and the comparison of blockchain technology with traditional options in terms of output.

That’s all for today’s discussion on Technical feasibility. If you wish to improve your product management experience, check out Chisel’s free forever today!