A pre-study, or feasibility study, is a crucial initial phase in a software project that helps to define the project’s direction and set objectives. By conducting the study, both you as the client and the software provider gain clarity on the project's scope and potential, which leads to more well-founded decisions on how to proceed.
It's easy to think that a feasibility study is essentially the work leading up to a quote — which couldn’t be more wrong. Thanks to the feasibility study, we can absolutely make a more accurate and well-founded estimation of what the price of the project will be, but it entails much more than that.
The purpose of the pre-study is as follows:
In this sense, a feasibility study is about creating a business case, i.e., in a detailed way gathering, analyzing, and presenting relevant information required to make a well-informed decision about not just the technical feasibility of the project, but the viability of the project from a business perspective. As a result, after completing the feasibility study, we have developed a comprehensive basis for decision-making that includes, among other things, a cost-benefit analysis and a strategic justification for the project as a whole.
As a strategic tech partner to our clients, Meta Bytes focuses not only on the software we develop. During the pre-study, we ensure to get a comprehensive view of your business to ensure that the solutions we develop are not only technically functional but also tailored to specific business goals, overarching strategies, and future visions.
Since the feasibility study results in a basis for decision-making, it creates significant value for you as a customer. If development work were to start immediately, without a feasibility study, there is a risk that you would be throwing money down the drain if you later realize that the solution was not what you thought you needed or is not compatible with other technologies in the business.
In this way, the pre-study is advantageous for you as it provides a clear picture of the solution to be developed and the value it will generate for the company.
Finding a provider that could conduct a pre-study turned out to be much harder than I first thought. But when we then found Meta Bytes, they proved to be one of the most professional, serious, and agile companies we have worked with. We are extremely pleased with what they have done and for their help in laying the groundwork for our next big project.
Robin Oscarsson, Station Manager at Daylight RV Center
Not conducting a feasibility study is not really an option. The risk of overlooking it is a bit like... ending up with a sausage machine when you needed a potato machine. You run the risk of the outcome of the solution not being what you had envisioned and not meeting the needs or goals that you wanted to meet. Simply because you never concretized your needs, expectations, and requirements.
Without a pre-study, you miss out on the opportunity to thoroughly understand the needs of users and stakeholders, as well as how these can be transformed into effective and value-creating functions. You then risk making the wrong type of investments and ultimately end up with a solution that does not meet market needs.
By initially conducting a feasibility study, you can streamline the solution you are going to develop and ensure that it is well adapted to the needs and goals it is supposed to fulfill. The process helps you focus on the most value-creating functions, which not only makes the development work more efficient but also leads to a successful launch and use of the solution.
If you don’t conduct a pre-study, there is a great risk that:
In summary, the feasibility study is a critical part of a software initiative. We review the purpose, objectives, and risks, and can thus develop a direction for the project. In this way, we produce a basis for decision-making which allows us to make well-informed decisions together throughout the software development journey, and carry out the development work in a more effective way.
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