Among the many assignments that a student has to do while I college are feasibility reports and recommendation reports. All these assignments have to be done by the requirements of the professor — these assignments among the many reports that a student is supposed to know how to write because they come in handy in professional life. Even as such, a student is supposed to know the difference between the recommendation report and a feasibility report.  Firstly, all reports provide carefully examined opinions, and sometimes recommendations. However, subtle differences exist among these reports, and rightly so, there are no universally agreed on names for each one of them. In this case, we are going to deal with feasibility and recommendation reports and the differences therein.

Recommendation Reports

This reports start with a stated need, selected choices or both the need and the choice. It then recommends one, some of none of them. For instance, a company may be looking at offering different products and wants a recommendation on what is best. If you are writing this project, you have to study the market for a given product and recommend the best-suited product, a couple of them or none of them.  In your recommendation report, you have to answer the question of “which?” where you can recommend one, both, or none of the products.

When writing a recommendation report, you are providing a solution to a given problem or evaluate possible solutions. This culminates to a recommended solution. However, before you do it, you need to identify a problem. When writing such reports, you need to consider the following aspects:

  • Site-specific:Do not propose a general solution, but provide one that is specific to a given situation.
  • Examine the existing knowledge on the subject through research. In other words, you are supposed to support your recommendations with research.
  • In some recommendation reports, money is involved, as such, you need to consider the improvement of everything and take into account the economic aspects. You ought to do a long-term cost analysis.
  • Consider the chance and human nature:You have to anticipate the unexpected, something that is unknown or seen.

Feasibility Reports

Feasibility reports study a situation, formulate a plan of action about the situation, and determine if the plan is feasible. In other words, you have to determine the practicability regarding the existing technology, economics, and social needs and so on. Feasibility reports answer the question “Should plan X be implemented or not?” It states a “yes”, “no” and sometimes “maybe.” It provides a recommendation besides giving the data and reasoning that leads to the recommendation. A feasibility report helps in:

  • Giving focus to a project
  • Narrowing the business alternatives
  • Identifying new opportunities
  • Giving reasons to continue
  • Providing valuable information for “going or not going” decision
  • Increasing probabilities of success for business by identifying weaknesses early enough
  • Providing a record of how the thorough investigation of the idea

Types of feasibility reports

Operational feasibility

This one is useful in identifying the operational problems that need a solution and the urgency. It also PIECES together the framework (Performance, Information, Economy, Control, Efficiency, Services)

Market feasibility

Market feasibility determines the needs, suitability of production technology, availability, and suitability of the site, raw materials, and other important inputs. Other feasibilities include economics, organisational, environmental, and legal feasibilities. A feasibility report is a culmination of a feasibility study, and it gives details on whether a project should be taken or not, and the reasons for such a decision.

Fine Distinctions

From the above information, you can tell there are fine distinctions between feasibility and recommendation reports. In the real world, these types often tend to combine, even with evaluation reports. It is easy to find some aspects of recommendation reports combining with aspects of feasibility reports.

Contents in both reports

Whatever type of recommendation or feasibility reports you write; most of the sections and organisation are the same. The principal structure of such reports is that you have to provide a recommendation, choice, judgement, data, and the conclusions that led to it. This enables the readers to examine your finding, logic, and conclusions that led to a completely different view. However, they are more likely to be convinced by your research if you are careful enough.

The Introduction

It shows the document is a recommendation or a feasibility report. You can indicate the purpose of the document instead of calling it by name and provide an overview of the report contents. In some reports, you can discuss the situation and the requirements in the introductory paragraph.

Technical background

Some feasibility or recommendation reports call for a technical discussion to give meaning to the rest of the report. However, the dilemma here is to decide where to put information in a section of its own or put it in the comparison section where it’s more relevant.

Situation background

You have to discuss the problem, need, or opportunity that has brought them about. If there is little to say about it, this information can appear in the introduction.

Requirements and criteria

Both reports discuss the requirements that you can use to reach the final recommendation or decision.

Discussion of the options

You have to tell how you arrived at the field of choices that you are focusing on. This comes once you discuss the requirements. You can use different examples of feasibility reports to check this.

Category by category comparisons

This section helps the readers to check your thinking and conclude in any way they see fit. You can use examples of recommendation reports to see how it is done.

Summary table

Give a summary table that summarises all the conclusions from the comparison section

Conclusions

Here, you restate the conclusions already deduced in the comparison sections

Recommendations or Final opinions

This is where you state the recommendation, and it should echo the most important conclusions that lead to the recommendation. You then state this recommendation emphatically and with different possibilities, you can give several recommendations.