ATS3222 Chap.10 Operational and Organisational Feasibility
Operational and Organisational Feasibility
Week 9 has no Moodle book; instead it uses practical exercises on determining feasibility.
Its objectives cover the practical side of a project, such as money, time, reaching participants and the skills needed; building consent, confidentiality and safe data keeping into the design; the effect of your position as a student researcher; and spotting likely problems through individual and group exercises.
The chapter is organised around A2, the feasibility report, worth 30% and about 1,200 words plus or minus 10%.
It sets out the five headed sections and their word allocations, overview 150, ethics 250, operational 250, organisational 250 and critical reflection 300, followed by a reference list of at least eight sources.
It shows how those allocations match a rubric that gives 45% to responding to the sections and 45% to outlining the impacts on your project.
A worked paragraph models the operational section for a rural telehealth study, moving from constraint to consequence to decision.
Practice tasks draft an organisational section for a student who volunteers at the organisation being studied and open a critical reflection that records a real change to the project.
Feasibility is where many promising projects become realistic ones. The chapter treats each constraint as a prompt to make a decision and to state what that decision costs.
Written that way, the report shows the analytical thinking the rubric rewards, and it also gives you a design you can defend in the proposal.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Purpose of the feasibility report
- 02
Five sections and their word budgets
- 03
Operational considerations
- 04
Data storage and consent as practical tasks
- 05
Organisational considerations
- 06
Your position as a student researcher
- 07
Writing the critical reflection
Worked example · free
Apply the feasibility chain to one constraint
- +1Constraint: night-shift workers are hard to reach during normal hours and may be too tired to talk after a shift.
- +1Consequence: recruitment will be slow and interviews short, threatening the planned sample in the time available.
- +1Decision: offer brief phone or video interviews at times participants choose, reduce the target sample, and extend the recruitment window in the timeline.
Key terms
- Operational considerations
- Practical factors such as time, money, equipment, access to participants and skills that shape a research design.
- Organisational considerations
- Effects of a researcher's institutional position and role on access, approvals and the conduct of a study.
- Critical reflection
- An argued account of how ethical, operational and organisational factors changed a topic and its research approach.
- Data management
- Planning how research data will be stored securely, de-identified and retained or destroyed.
- Positionality
- A researcher's standpoint in relation to the topic and participants, and how it shapes access and interpretation.
Operational and Organisational Feasibility FAQ
What are the word allocations in the feasibility report?
Overview 150, ethics 250, operational considerations 250, organisational considerations 250 and critical reflection 300, which together make 1,200 words. A reference list of at least eight sources follows on a separate page, and each section should keep the title used in the instructions.
What counts as an organisational consideration?
The instructions ask what difference it makes that you research from inside a university: approvals you need, the access your role opens or closes, and how participants may see you.
How is the feasibility report marked?
The rubric gives 45% to an effective response across the five sections, 45% to an effective outline of the impacts of these issues on your project, and 10% to expression, citations and referencing.
When was the feasibility report due?
The Moodle Assessments page lists Friday 25 September 2026 at 11:55 PM, following an announced one-week extension. Earlier dates shown on the Week 1 slides were superseded, so always check the live Moodle page for the current deadline.
What should the critical reflection contain?
It should explain how ethical, operational and organisational factors changed your topic and approach. Name each factor, say what it changed, and say what the project gained or lost, rather than repeating the earlier sections.
How should A2 connect to the research proposal?
A2 identifies the focus of your proposal and tests whether it can be done. The changes you make there, such as a narrower sample or a different recruitment route, should appear in the research design you pitch in A3.
Assessment move
List every constraint your project faces under three headings, ethical, operational and organisational, and for each write the decision it forces. Draft the critical reflection last, using those decisions as evidence of how the project changed. Keep the revised design beside you when writing the proposal, so the two tasks agree.
Then check that each section stays close to its word allocation, since a long ethics section usually means a thin reflection.
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