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How To Run A Feasibility Study [+Template]
Feasibility Study Template: Evaluate Project Viability
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Feasibility Study Template: Evaluate Project Viability

Determine if a project will be successful before committing time and resources with a feasibility study template.
Laila Robinson
This template was built with Coda, the all-in-one doc that brings words, data, and teams together. Play with the template below or copy the doc to save your edits.

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Project Projection & Risks
3
Project Name
Projected Cost
Risks
Stakeholders Required
1
Launch Monetization Ecosystem
$15,000
System Crash
Engineers
PMs
Marketing
2
Release alpha version of product
$20,000
​
Engineers
PMs
Marketing
3
Fix major bug fixes on mobile app
$10,000
​
Engineers
PMs
4
Board Meeting
$8,000
Inclement Weather
Finance
Ops
There are no rows in this table
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Simple Risk Register
1
Risk
Associated Project
Probability
Impact
Severity
Risk Owner(s)
1
System Crash
Launch Monetization Ecosystem
High
Medium
24
BD
Buck Dubois
Adam Davis
LT
Lola Tseudonym
2
Inclement Weather
Board Meeting
Medium
Low
12
FM
Felix Marlin
JB
James Booth
JD
Joel Davis
There are no rows in this table
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As great as it would be to just start working when you’ve got an idea for a project, it’s not something a lot of companies are going to let you do.
Think about it. You’re dealing with company resources and a project, even a relatively small one, can easily run tens of thousands of dollars. If you’re not able to convince the higher-ups that your project isn’t going to waste all that time and money, you’re probably not going to be able to run your project, regardless of how much potential it has.
That’s why, before you’ve even put together a
project plan
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you need to run a feasibility study to make sure the proposed project is viable.

What is a feasibility study?

A feasibility study is a part of project management that helps you determine whether or not a project is going to be successful. To do this, you have to examine factors like the economics of the project, goals, whether you have the technical capabilities available to make it happen, the likelihood of success, and how long it’s going to take, among other things. Your goal is to put together a convincing business case for the success of the project.

What is a feasibility study template?

A feasibility study template is a project management template that helps you gather up the information that you need to properly complete a feasibility analysis. These templates take you away from the somewhat rigid structures that come with spreadsheets. Instead, you get a highly customizable document that fits your specific projects and makes sure you have what you need to put together a convincing feasibility study.

What is the purpose of a project feasibility study during the project planning process?

The purpose of the feasibility study is to get buy-in from stakeholders before project initiation. You need to be able to present them with data that showcases the likelihood of success for your project. Because nothing ever goes according to plan, it helps to include some aspects of risk management here, including mentioning potential risks and how you’re going to mitigate them should they arise. The more you can do to convince stakeholders that your project will be successful and that you’ve planned for any potential issues, the more likely you are to get your project approved.

What does a feasibility study include?

The feasibility study should contain all the information you have that is relevant to your project. This includes what you hope to do, what you need to make it happen, how you’re going to do it, and financial feasibility among other things. Let’s explore what information you should be presenting to your stakeholders to get buy-in.

Executive summary

This is a quick summation of what the project is. It needs to be clear what your goal is with the project, what a successful project looks like, what the benefit to the company is, and how much you expect it to cost.

Project scope

Describe the scope of the project. If this is a client project, all this defines exactly what you’ll be doing for the client. However, if it’s an internal project, you still need to define what the work looks like. You need to show stakeholders that this isn’t going to be a neverending ordeal and that there’s a clear end to the project.

Problem statement

What problem will this project solve? For a project to be viable, there needs to be a good reason for it (and a high chance of success), so this is an important detail. It could be something simple, like this project solves a client problem. Internally, though, it could be that the project solves a problem your business has been dealing with for a long time, like an internal bottleneck in the contractor payment process.

Market Research

This can be a great way to make a strong business case for your project. Market research can provide actual proof that the proposed solution is actually something that people are looking for. Showing demand for a new product (or service) tells stakeholders there is probably going to be a big return on investment (ROI) on the new project.

Proposed solution

How do you plan to solve the problem outlined in the problem statement? This essentially defines the path you plan on taking to help resolve the problem. It also highlights the final deliverables of the project.

Alternatives

What are your backup solutions if the main idea doesn’t work out? It’s always a good idea to provide alternatives to your stakeholders so that they can see you’ve considered the project from multiple perspectives, including the ones where things don’t work out. Ideally, you’ll never need to rely on these plans, but having them is a good idea.

Financial projections

Explore the numbers of the project to show how it’s going to make money. This includes a budget, so stakeholders know what to expect from the cost. And, how much financial gain the company can expect to see from this. Be sure to include as much detail as you can in the financial projections because they have the potential to make or break the project.

Technical considerations

What tools do you need to complete the project? Are they already available in-house or are you going to need to get more to complete the task? Answer these questions for stakeholders, so they can better understand whether you have the technical feasibility to complete the project.

Staffing requirements

What does the project team look like? Similar to the tools, you should outline whether or not you have everybody you need to complete the project in-house, or if you’ll need to bring in outside contractors. Outside contractors tend to be more expensive than working with in-house staff, so if you need to bring them in, it helps to outline why.

Possible roadblocks

You probably haven’t done a
risk assessment
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for your project at this point, but you’ve probably worked on similar projects. Let the stakeholders know what could potentially happen to knock the project off course and outline some solutions. This shows that you’re already thinking about ways to stop the project from falling apart.

Conclusion

After going through the process and conducting the study, what do you recommend? Odds are, since it’s your project, you’re going to want to recommend continuing with the project. But, it’s entirely possible that you go through the feasibility study and realize that it’s just not a good project. It could be too expensive with a low ROI, maybe there are too many different risk factors that need to be mitigated. Whatever the reason (and whatever your decision), make a call on the project and provide your reasoning.
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👉 Get started with this feasibility study template.
Copy this template
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After you copy this template, you can start utilizing this free feasibility study template for your projects and business.

Conducting a feasibility study with Coda's template

Step 1: Conducting Project Planning

Starting with the
Project Planning
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page, you can add a new project that your organization is planning on taking on by clicking the Add Project button. In the
Projects
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table you can add details for your project like Project Name, Executive Summary, choose a Project Scope, and add the Dates of the project.
In the
Project Problem Statement
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table, you can fill out the potential problems each of the projects aims to solve and also add a corresponding description to each of the projects.

Step 2: Projecting the Project

In the
Project Analysis & Projection
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page, the main objective is to further plan each of the projects and try to project what the feasibility of each of the project’s may be. In the
Project Projection
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table, you can add in how much each of the project’s may Cost, which Risks are involved, and which Stakeholders need to be involved.
By clicking the Register a Risk button, you can add details for the risk like its Description, Associated Project, its Probability, its Impact, Person Responsible, and Date it was Realized. The Severity Score of the risk will be based on its probability and impact (higher score means the risk is important to address).

Step 3: Visual Timeline

In the
Project Timeline
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page, you can visualize the timeline of each of the projects.

Feasibility study template FAQs

What is the most important element of a feasibility study?

The whole study is important, but if you had to distill it down to a handful of factors those would be:
Executive summary
Scope
Financial projections
Roadblocks
Market research
Conclusion

Who performs a feasibility study?

Anyone can conduct a feasibility study, really. Ultimately, it’s going to depend on the structure of your business, but typically the study is conducted by the person who wants to run the project. This could be a key decision-maker, a project manager or a key stakeholder within the business. It could also be something initiated by a salesperson who wants to see whether they can take on a certain client or project.

What is the difference between a feasibility study and a business plan?

The difference between the two is that a feasibility study is designed to determine whether a project is feasible. A business plan, on the other hand, is a plan that outlines how you intend to run a new business.

Which factors determine project viability?

The biggest one is going to whether or not the project is going to make money, either from the fee you’re charging or the value it adds to the organization. Outside of that, factors like timing, technical capabilities, how good the business opportunity is, or whether you have enough people to complete the project are going to play a big role in viability.

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Start with:
Project Planning
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