Individual: Planning For Feasibility Study

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Individual: Planning for Feasibility Study

Or Benet
CMGT/555 Systems Analysis & Development
September 26, 2016
Professor Joseph Duer

Purpose

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In the infant stage of a systems development, a feasibility study is performed in order for a
business to be able to determine and evaluate a wide range of factors concerning resource
management and availability. If the study concludes that the system does not pass the feasibility
requirements, it is either abandoned or modified to fit those requirements in the case the project is
abandoned, another more viable project takes its place. I present here a feasibility study plan for an
information system to be developed by a small business. The information system to be developed is a
fairly specialized type of information system; however, it still abides by ideas, methodologies, and
techniques used in general information system development, therefore, the success of this system
relies heavily on the successful creation of a proper, and unique, feasibility study plan during the early
stages of development. (Warnars, 2010)
Type of Business and Strategic Goals
Blind Dog Pro. (BDp) is a recently formed independent video game company with three,
currently, non-paid employees. BDp has a small team consisting of college graduates whose life
interest is dedicated to Science Technology Engineering and mathematics (STEM): a Chemist (me), a
Computer Engineer, and a Software Engineer our size brings with it many challenges and
disadvantages; however, there are many positive sides when small teams develop, create, and
implement systems freedom to create, less stipulations, and more flexible deadlines are just a few
(Pros and Cons of Indie Game Design, 2015). Since BDP consists of members that are knowledgeable,
both technically and worldly, each employee is in charge of multiple aspects of development and
business operations. The short term strategic goals of BDp include turning a profit in order to pay its
employees, and creating a releasable video game ALPHA onto platform that sell early access video
games. Long term strategic goal include releasing a game that becomes popular among the Gamer
community, maintaining positive customer satisfaction, and eventually selling out to a larger company.
Information System Choice
Since BDp is in the business of creating and releasing video games, the information system to
be developed is a Video Game Information System (VGIS). The type of VGIS BDp decides on developing
will heavily rely on the results of the feasibility study. BDp understands and embraces its limitations as
far as budget, time, and resources are considered. It does not expect to release a next-generation
triple A video game, instead, it will focus its efforts on creating a fun and interactive video game that
appeals to a large demographic, and requires a limited amount of a computer systems resources. BDp
will focus on finding the VGIS that will provide the company the most benefits in terms of profits, costs,
and reusability; help BDp achieve its strategic goals; provide the highest profit over its lifetime; and
require the least amount of money and resources to be completed.
Video Game Information System Requirement
Although the actual VGIS to be developed has yet to be established, all VGIS that BDp has
considered developing share a few basic requirements. The extent of these requirements will vary as
the results of the feasibility study are analyzed and a concrete VGIS is decided upon. I present here a
list of all the requirements shared by all considered BDp VGIS projects. Specific requirements can be

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lessened by outsourcing assets, and using a pre-built 3D game engine. The advantages and
ramifications of outsourcing some requirements will be further considered when the feasibility results
are analyzed.

Requirement
Game Assets
Code

Demographic
Server
Our Current
Team

Description
Meshes, Animations, Levels, Sound, Music, User interface (UI) elements, etc.
Game rules and actor logic as well as code to manipulate simulated lighting
and other game specific functions such as: saving or manipulating the game
resolution. Benchmarking is also part of this requirement.
Which and What percent of the population would be interested in this game?
Manage user transactions and/or World High Score database
A loss of one of the members would severely hinder the potential success of the
VGIS to be developed.

Time

The game should not require years of development, and since the development
team have other work obligations, meeting deadlines will require a shared
effort by all members.
Table 1: Shared Requirements of all considered BDp Video Game Information Systems
Feasibility Study Considerations and Scope
The feasibility study to be performed will be based on how the following major factors correlate
to BDps business strategies: Economic, operational, technical, schedule, legal/contractual, and
political factors. The feasibility study should give BDp a good idea as far as the project size, time
requirement, workload, marketing, and potential success. Risks involved with BDps scenario will also
have to be studied since a VGIS is composed of many Information systems working in unison. The
team is working on a very small budget, and is entering a market flooded with competition (Zurko,
2016). As the project matures, certain aspects and elements which comprise the feasibility study may
change, and require reevaluation of the project as it progresses. Information gathering techniques
used will mainly rely on the data-mining abilities of the team to gather information regarding other
independent game development companies which are successful, and early access ALPHA testing
information gathered from end-users (David Broshenka; Alfonso Peter Castro, n.d.). By using this
process, BDp will be able to generate a baseline project plan (BPP) and a project scope statement
(PSS) to form a business case which should increase the probability of a successful project (Valacich,
2012). The risks are a leap of faith but BDp members have nothing to lose, and everything to gain
Feasibility Study Factors
The previous sections were necessary in order to prepare a rational and much needed
feasibility study plan which is described in the following paragraphs divided into the aforementioned
factors:
BDp needs money in order to sustain itself so a major part of the study will focus on economic
factors and cost-benefit analysis. They might not be able to define all the associated costs; however, it
will be impossible to identify and quantify the associated benefits and costs of the project if they do
not. BDp will use table in order to obtain the associated tangible and intangible benefits from the
system to be developed. The tangible benefits will be the revenue stream of the game, as well as

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obtaining and retaining costumers by reviewing the costumer lifetime value of each costumer.
Intangible benefits from the project would be pre-created systems that can be used for additional
projects, game competitiveness in the market, and an improvement of skills associated with all team
members. Other intangible benefits such as customer satisfaction can later be associated with
customer retention and acquisition, and may become a tangible benefit as the project progresses
through the stages. Tangible costs would include any outsourced assets or sub-systems, as well as any
royalty cost involved from using software such as a pre-developed game engine, 3D CAD software,
Digital audio workstation (DAW) software, and any recurring cost involving game server maintenance
or marketing (Owen & Sonny, 2003). Intangible cost might involve time involved with maintaining the
game itself (Fixing bugs, compatibility issues, etc.), loss of customers due to lack of interest, server
upgrades, and any other cost associated with a rapidly growing business. BDp will have to heavily
consider the Time Value of Money (TVM) in order to make decisions concerning any contractual
agreements, purchases, etc. This will give the company a better idea of the cost associated with timesensitive and time-insensitive purchases so that they can make better financial decisions. They will
also have to examine the associated simulated return on investment (ROI) of the project which will
change into a real value once the system hits the Alpha stage and is ready for early access testing and
sales (Muzyka & Ayoub, 2003). The economic feasibility tests will conclude with a break even analysis
(BEA) in order to determine the time required for the system to cover initial and recurring costs. Since
BDp does not earn any revenues, the break even analysis will have to be performed once the system
in available on platforms that sell early access games. Since this information system presents unique
challenges and opportunities that differ, in part, from business systems, slightly different parameters
concerning benefits, costs, ROI, and BEA will be used according to present data concerning other
independent game development companies (Valacich, 2012).
Operational and technical feasibility will be measured and tested by looking at the different
levels of skills every team member possesses. For the project to attain its desired objectives, each
member of the team will have to possess multi-tasking and time management skills since the team is
too small to allow each member to focus on one aspect. Each member has already been evaluated on
their required skills as marketers, programmers, data-miners, designers, audio engineers, artists, and
storytellers. All three of the team members are programmers to varying degrees, two of them are
experienced enough with DAW and music theory, one of them is a 2D and 3D artist knowledgeable
with a variety of CAD software, one of them is an exceptional storyteller, and one of them is an
experienced marketer and manager. Since programming every function required by the VGIS will most
likely take a big chunk of the project time, all three team members will be heavily involved in coding.
All the team members are avid Gamers and will therefore be able to contribute to the operational
feasibility as far as catching opportunities to improve the game or present it in a way that will attract
more customers (Valacich, 2012).
The schedule portion of the feasibility study should examine past examples of small teams
working on projects that are within the same scope of this project in order for our team to obtain a
realistic task schedule (Valacich, 2012). Overall, BDp plans to create a working releasable alpha within
a year, and then polishing and adding all missing features as time progresses. Studying other like

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businesses will allow BDp to either keep the development schedule or modify it based on realistic data
(Murguia & Urquhart, 2003).
The legal and contractual portion of the study will mainly focus on making sure the game does
not violate any copyrights, and that all our contractual obligations are met with regards to software
and out sourced systems and assets. For our team, this would mean making sure we do not use any
asset which is copyrighted unless we parody that asset (Marshall & Siciliano). Contracting the help of a
Lawyer or some other legal professional should be considered in order to make sure the company is
operating on the right side of the law (Valacich, 2012). As far as DRM goes, research shows that games
DRM protection rarely protects against unlawful use and will most likely annoy the honest paying
customers; therefore, BDp games will be released DRM free with the exception of a VGIS that relies on
constant internet connection (Cushing, 2011).
Since BDp is self-owned and operated, the political feasibility of the project will be under the
BDp team members command. A unanimous decision by all those who are on the team will determine
whether or not the project is deemed worthy of being developed; however, the total result of feasibility
studies performed will determine the decisions of individual team members to form the political
feasibility of the project (Valacich, 2012).
References

Cushing, T. (2011, December 2). Despite Being Pirated 4.5 Millions Times, 'Witcher 2' Developer
Refuses To Annoy Paying Customers With DRM. Retrieved from Tech Dirt Website:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111201/05251816942/despite-being-pirated-45-millionstimes-witcher-2-developer-refuses-to-annoy-paying-customers-with-drm.shtml
David Broshenka; Alfonso Peter Castro. (n.d.). 4. Methods of fact finding. Retrieved from FAO Corporate
Document Repository: http://www.fao.org/docrep/q1085e/q1085e07.htm
Marshall, J. W., & Siciliano, N. J. (n.d.). The Satire/Parody Distinction in Copyright and Trademark Law
Can Satire Ever Be a Fair Use? . Retrieved from American Bar Organization:
http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf
Murguia, M., & Urquhart, F. (2003, April 22). IGDA Business Committee - Best Practices in Resource
Management - . Retrieved from International game developers association :
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/FDB22FE1-269A-4EB8-B76A7CD0BB88A008/IGDA_Best_Practices_Resources-1.pdf
Muzyka, R., & Ayoub, D. (2003, April 22). IGDA Business Committee - Best Practices in Promotion and
Marketing - . Retrieved from International game developer association:
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/FDB22FE1-269A-4EB8-B76A7CD0BB88A008/IGDA_Best_Practices_Marketing.pdf
Owen, K., & Sonny, C. (2003, April 22). IGDA Business Committee - Best Practices in Finance - .
Retrieved from International game developers association :

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https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/FDB22FE1-269A-4EB8-B76A7CD0BB88A008/IGDA_Best_Practices_Finance.pdf
Pros and Cons of Indie Game Design. (2015, December 18). Retrieved from Game Designing Org:
http://www.gamedesigning.org/career/indie-game-development/
Valacich, J. S. (2012). Systems Planning and Selection. In J. S. Valacich, Essentials of Systems Analysis
and Design, 5e (pp. 82-112). New york City: Pearson Education, Inc.
Warnars, S. (2010, June). Game Information Systems. Retrieved from Cornell University Libarary:
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1006/1006.1190.pdf
Zurko, N. (2016, February 11). The Pros And Cons Of Developing For Todays Top Game Markets.
Retrieved from New York Film Academy Ltd.: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/the-prosand-cons-of-developing-for-todays-top-game-markets/