The increasing use of high strength materials in various industrial sectors, such as automotive, tool and die, and aerospace, poses the requirement of appropriate machining techniques, which are capable enough to machine these materials. When machining these difficult to machine materials, along with the dimensional and shape accuracy, the efficiency of machining and economic aspects of the machining are paramount importance. The present study investigates the effectiveness of hard turning in machining of alloy steels over conventional turning process which required grinding as a secondary finishing process to achieve desired surface roughness. Therefore, this study is an attempt to bracket the range of input parameters: speed, feed, and depth of cut that affect the surface roughness of part in a complex way. The range of process parameters obtained through this study will be further utilized for detailed experimental analysis of hard turning of alloy steel. The preliminary investigation is carried out using one factor at a time approach (OFAT) where one process parameter is varied throughout working range of machine, while other parameters are kept at central levels.