We will be covering:Technology and system feasibilityThe assessment is based on an outline design of system requirements, to determine whether the company has the technical expertise to handle completion of the project. When writing a feasibility report, the following should be taken to consideration: A brief description of the business to assess more possible factor/s which could affect the study The part of the business being examined The human and economic factor The possible solutions to the problemsAt this level, the concern is whether the proposal is bothtechnicallyandlegallyfeasible (assuming moderate cost).Legal FeasibilityDetermines whether the proposed system conflicts with legal requirements, e.g. a data processing system must comply with the local Data Protection Acts.Operational FeasibilityOperational feasibility is a measure of how well a proposed system solves the problems, and takes advantage of the opportunities identified during scope definition and how it satisfies the requirements identified in the requirements analysis phase of system development. The operational feasibility assessment focuses on the degree to which the proposed development projects fits in with the existing business environment and objectives with regard to development schedule, delivery date, corporate culture, and existing business processes.To ensure success, desired operational outcomes must be imparted during design and development. These include such design-dependent parameters such as reliability, maintainability, supportability, usability, producibility, disposability, sustainability, affordability and others. These parameters are required to be considered at the early stages of design if desired operational behaviors are to be realized. A system design and development requires appropriate and timely application of engineering and management efforts to meet the previously mentioned parameters. A system may serve its intended purpose most effectively when its technical and operating characteristics are engineered into the design. Therefore operational feasibility is a critical aspect of systems engineering that needs to be an integral part of the early design phases. Economic FeasibilityThe purpose of the economic feasibility assessment is to determine the positive economic benefits to the organization that the proposed system will provide. It includes quantification and identification of all the benefits expected. This assessment typically involves a cost/ benefits analysis.Technical FeasibilityThe technical feasibility assessment is focused on gaining an understanding of the present technical resources of the organization and their applicability to the expected needs of the proposed system. It is an evaluation of the hardware and software and how it meets the need of the proposed system

Schedule FeasibilityA project will fail if it takes too long to be completed before it is useful. Typically this means estimating how long the system will take to develop, and if it can be completed in a given time period using some methods like payback period. Schedule feasibility is a measure of how reasonable the project timetable is. Given our technical expertise, are the project deadlines reasonable? Some projects are initiated with specific deadlines. You need to determine whether the deadlines are mandatory or desirable.Market and real estate feasibilityMarket feasibility studies typically involve testing geographic locations for a real estate development project, and usually involve parcels of real estate land. Developers often conduct market studies to determine the best location within a jurisdiction, and to test alternative land uses for given parcels. Jurisdictions often require developers to complete feasibility studies before they will approve a permit application for retail, commercial, industrial, manufacturing, housing, office or mixed-use project. Market Feasibility takes into account the importance of the business in the selected area.Resource feasibilityThis involves questions such as how much time is available to build the new system, when it can be built, whether it interferes with normal business operations, type and amount of resources required, dependencies,Cultural feasibilityIn this stage, the project's alternatives are evaluated for their impact on the local and generalculture. For example, environmental factors need to be considered and these factors are to be well known. Further an enterprise's own culture can clash with the results of the project.Financial feasibilityIn case of a new project, financial viability can be judged on the following parameters: Total estimated cost of the project Financing of the project in terms of its capital structure, debt equity ratio and promoter's share of total cost Existing investment by the promoter in any other business Projected cash flow and profitabilityThe financial viability of a project should provide the following information: Full details of the assets to be financed and how liquid those assets are. Rate of conversion to cash-liquidity (i.e. how easily can the various assets be converted to cash?). Project's funding potential and repayment terms. Sensitivity in the repayments capability to the following factors: Time delays. Mild slowing of sales. Acute reduction/slowing of sales. Small increase in cost. Large increase in cost. Adverse economic conditions.Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product.Peter Druckerbelievedmarket research to be the quintessence of marketing.There are two major types of market research.Primary Researchsub-divided intoQuantitativeandQualitativeresearch andSecondary research.For starting up a business, there are some important things: Market informationThroughMarket informationone can know the prices of different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. However, not market research reveal more than economic information. Market researchers have a wider role than previously recognized by helping their clients to understand social, technical, and even legal aspects of markets. Market segmentationMarket segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences,technographicdifferences, use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences. For B2B segmentationfirmographicsis commonly used. Market trendsMarket trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. Determining the market size may be more difficult if one is starting with a new innovation. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments. SWOT AnalysisIs a written analysis of the Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to a business entity. Not only should a SWOT be used in the creation stage of the company but could also be used throughout the life of the company. A SWOT may also write up for the competition to understand how to develop the marketing and product mixes.Besides information about the target market, one also needs information about one's competitors, customers, products, etc. Lastly, you need to measuremarketing effectiveness. A few techniques are: Customer analysis Choice modelling Competitor analysis Risk analysis Product research Advertising the research Marketing mix modeling Simulated Test Marketing

Financial planningis the task of determining how a business will afford to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. Usually, a company creates a Financial Plan immediately after thevisionandobjectiveshave been set. TheFinancial Plandescribes each of the activities, resources, equipment and materials that are needed to achieve these objectives, as well as the timeframes involved.The Financial Planning activity involves the following tasks;- Assess the business environment Confirm the business vision and objectives Identify the types of resources needed to achieve these objectives Quantify the amount of resource (labor, equipment, materials) Calculate the total cost of each type of resource Summarize the costs to create a budget Identify any risks and issues with the budget setPerforming Financial Planning is critical to the success of any organization. It provides the Business Plan with rigor, by confirming that the objectives set are achievable from a financial point of view. It also helps the CEO to set financial targets for the organization, and reward staff for meeting objectives within the budget set.The role of financial planning includes three categories: 1. Strategic role of financial management: 2. Objectives of financial management: 3. The planning cycle

Capital budgeting(or investment appraisal) is the planning process used to determine whether an organization's long terminvestmentssuch as new machinery, replacement machinery, new plants, new products, and research development projects are worth the funding of cash through the firm's capitalization structure (debt, equity or retained earnings). It is the process of allocating resources for majorcapital, or investment, expenditures.One of the primary goals of capital budgeting investments is to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders.Many formal methods are used in capital budgeting, including the techniques such as Accounting rate of return Payback period Net present value Profitability index Internal rate of return Modified internal rate of return Equivalent annuity Real options valuationThese methods use the incremental cash flows from each potential investment, orproject. Techniques based on accounting earnings and accounting rules are sometimes used - though economists consider this to be improper - such as theaccounting rate of return,and "return on investment." Simplified and hybrid methods are used as well, such aspayback periodanddiscounted payback period.

Business continuity planning(BCP) "identifies an organization's exposure to internal and external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to provide effective prevention and recovery for the organization, while maintaining competitive advantage and value system integrity.[1]It is also calledbusiness continuity and resiliency planning(BCRP). A business continuity plan is a roadmap for continuing operations under adverse conditions such as a storm or a crime. In the US, governmental entities refer to the process ascontinuity of operations planning(COOP).Any event that could impact operations is included, such as supply chain interruption, loss of or damage to critical infrastructure (major machinery or computing/network resource). As such,risk managementmust be incorporated as part of BCPBusiness impact analysis (BIA)A Business impact analysis (BIA) differentiates critical (urgent) and non-critical (non-urgent) organization functions/activities. Critical functions are those whose disruption is regarded as unacceptable. Perceptions of acceptability are affected by the cost of recovery solutions. A function may also be considered critical if dictated by law. For each critical (in scope) function, two values are then assigned: Recovery Point Objective(RPO) the acceptable latency of data that will not be recovered Recovery Time Objective(RTO) the acceptable amount of time to restore the functionThe recovery point objective must ensure that the maximum tolerable data loss for each activity is not exceeded. The Recovery Time Objective must ensure that theMaximum Tolerable Period of Disruption(MTPoD) for each activity is not exceeded.Next, the impact analysis results in the recovery requirements for each critical function. Recovery requirements consist of the following information: The business requirements for recovery of the critical function, and/or The technical requirements for recovery of the critical functionThreat and risk analysis (TRA)After defining recovery requirements, each potential threat may require unique recovery steps. Common threats include Epidemic Earthquake Fire Flood Cyber attack Sabotage(insider or external threat) Hurricaneor other major storm Utility outage Terrorism/Piracy War/civil disorder Theft (insider or external threat, vital information or material) Random failure of mission-critical systemsThe impact of an epidemic can be regarded as purely human, and may be alleviated with technical and business solutions. However, if people behind these plans are affected by the disease, then the process can stumble.During the 20022003SARSoutbreak, some organizations grouped staff into separate teams, and rotated the teams between primary and secondary work sites, with a rotation frequency equal to theincubation periodof the disease. The organizations also banned face-to-face intergroup contact during business and non-business hours. The split increased resiliency against the threat ofquarantinemeasures if one person in a team was exposed to the disease.Impact scenariosAfter defining threats, impact scenarios form the basis of the business recovery plan. In general, planning for the most wide-reaching impact is preferable. A typical impact scenario such as "building loss" encompasses most critical business functions. A BCP may document scenarios for each building. More localized impact scenarios for example loss of a specific floor in a building may also be documented.Recovery requirementAfter the analysis phase, business and technical recovery requirements precede the solutions phase. Asset inventories allow for quick identification of deployable resources. For an office-based, IT-intensive business, the plan requirements may cover desks, human resources, applications, data, manual workarounds, computers and peripherals.Other business environments, such as production, distribution, warehousing etc. will need to cover these elements, but likely have additional issues.Solution designThe solution design phase identifies the most cost-effectivedisaster recoverysolution that meets two main requirements from the impact analysis stage. For IT purposes, this is commonly expressed as the minimum application and data requirements and the time in which the minimum application and application data must be available.Outside the IT domain, preservation of hard copy information, such as contracts, skilled staff or restoration of embedded technology in a process plant must be considered. This phase overlaps withdisaster recovery planningmethodology. The solution phase determines: crisis management command structure secondary work sites telecommunication architecture between primary and secondary work sites data replication methodology between primary and secondary work sites applications and data required at the secondary work site, and physical data requirements at the secondary work site.

ImplementationThe implementation phase involves policy changes, material acquisitions, staffing and testing.Testing and organizational acceptanceThe purpose of testing is to achieve organizational acceptance that the solution satisfies the recovery requirements. Plans may fail to meet expectations due to insufficient or inaccurate recovery requirements, solution design flaws or solution implementation errors. Testing may include: Crisis command team call-out testing Technical swing test from primary to secondary work locations Technical swing test from secondary to primary work locations Application test Business process testAt minimum, testing is conducted on a biannual schedule.The 2008 bookExercising for Excellence, published by TheBritish Standards Institutionidentified three types of exercises that can be employed when testing business continuity plans.Tabletop exercisesTabletop exercises typically involve a small number of people and concentrates on a specific aspect of a BCP. They can easily accommodate complete teams from a specific area of a business.Another form involves a single representative from each of several teams. Typically, participants work through simple scenario and then discuss specific aspects of the plan. For example, a fire is discovered out of working hours.The exercise consumes only a few hours and is often split into two or three sessions, each concentrating on a different theme.Medium exercisesA medium exercise is conducted within a "Virtual World" and brings together several departments, teams or disciplines. It typically concentrates on multiple BCP aspects, prompting interaction between teams. The scope of a medium exercise can range from a few teams from one organisation co-located in one building to multiple teams operating across dispersed locations. The environment needs to be as realistic as practicable and team sizes should reflect a realistic situation. Realism may extend to simulated news broadcasts and websites.A medium exercise typically lasts a few hours, though they can extend over several days. They typically involve a "Scenario Cell" that adds pre-scripted "surprises" throughout the exercise.Complex exercisesA complex exercise aims to have as few boundaries as possible. It incorporates all the aspects of a medium exercise. The exercise remains within a virtual world, but maximum realism is essential. This might include no-notice activation, actual evacuation and actual invocation of a disaster recovery site.While start and stop times are pre-agreed, the actual duration might be unknown if events are allowed to run their course.MaintenanceBiannual or annual maintenance cycle maintenance of a BCP manual is broken down into three periodic activities. Confirmation of information in the manual, roll out to staff for awareness and specific training for critical individuals. Testing and verification of technical solutions established for recovery operations. Testing and verification of organization recovery procedures.Issues found during the testing phase often must be reintroduced to the analysis phase.Information/targetsThe BCP manual must evolve with the organization. Activating thecall treeverifies the notification plan's efficiency as well as contact data accuracy. Types of changes that should be identified and updated in the manual include: Staffing Important clients Vendors/suppliers Organization structure changes Company investment portfolio and mission statement Communication and transportation infrastructure such as roads and bridgesTechnicalSpecialized technical resources must be maintained. Checks include: Virusdefinition distribution Application security and service patch distribution Hardware operability Application operability Data verification Data applicationTesting and verification of recovery proceduresAs work processes change, previous recovery procedures may no longer be suitable. Checks include: Are all work processes for critical functions documented? Have the systems used for critical functions changed? Are the documented work checklists meaningful and accurate? Do the documented work process recovery tasks and supporting disaster recovery infrastructure allow staff to recover within the predetermined recovery time objective?