jimbo1580 wrote Adrian, You say above that the ATM should be able to scan the money, identify the amount, and count the money.  This sounds like something that could potentially be a feasibility issue.  For example, the technology may not be available commercially and may cost a lot to develop or you may not have the resources to develop it.  When would you bring this up to the project team?  And how would you handle it? -Jim

Hi Jim,

If the technology is not currently available then this would indeed be something that should be looked at in more details before making it a requirement; in this case a feasibility study would be in order.

For this specific feature - it does exist.  Many of the new ATM machines in the US do have this feature.

- Adrian

jimbo1580 wrote Hi Adrian, For the sake of discussion, let's assume you (as the BA) were presented with the requirement to have the system scan and identify money and, hypothetically, you weren't sure it that technology existed or not.  What would your process be for a feasibility study?  How would you proceed?  I am interested because I am working on a project now that has a few requirements that may or may not be technically feasible to implement. Thanks, Jim

Hi Jim,

As a Business Analysts you should not feel like you have to personally solve every problem and issue.  You are a facilitator!  If the requirements are clear but there are doubts about the feasibility of any requirements than further study must be done in those specific areas.  In these cases you need to bring the subject matter experts and facilitate discovery sessions at a minimum.  You can make this task more formal and commission a feasibility study.

Who the subject matter experts are would depend on the type of requirement.  For example - if the requirement has to do with a complex financial or accounting method then CPAs, the CFO, and perhaps legal folks might be your stakeholders.  If the requirement might have a technological limitation then you would have to get the technical team involved.

In this ATM example, I would tap the in-house ATM experts and possibly even some external consultants who are experts in this field.  It is always a good idea for an organization to get ideas from and look outside the company for fresh ideas and opportunities.

- Adrian