Practicability

Practicability refers to the state or condition of being practicable: capable of being put into practice or carried out successfully. It concerns the feasibility of a plan, policy, or action given current technology, resources, laws, and social factors. The term is closely related to feasibility, but practitioners often use practicability to emphasize real-world implementability rather than theoretical possibility.

In legal contexts, the word appears in phrases such as reasonably practicable, meaning that a duty or obligation should be performed if it would be reasonable in the circumstances to undertake measures necessary to comply, taking into account the severity of risk, the burden of the measures, cost, and other factors. In policy and administrative settings, practicability assessments examine whether a proposed measure can be implemented with available resources without undue burden, delay, or risk.

In engineering and project management, practicability is evaluated through feasibility studies, pilot testing, cost-benefit analysis, and risk assessment. Studies may address technical feasibility (can it be built at all), economic feasibility (is it affordable), and operational feasibility (can it be integrated into existing processes).

Limitations: what is practicable can change over time with advances in technology, changes in costs, or shifts in public opinion. The concept is thus dynamic and context-dependent. See also feasibility, practicality, doable, and workable.