Building an Architecture – Scope and Requirements

In the previous chapter, we went through how to establish the laws of the universe, which set the context for our architectural design work. Specifically, we examined the nuances of the organization that have the potential to guide or constrain our designs or their subsequent execution. This includes the organization’s risk tolerances, goals, compliance requirements, context, business, and anything else that may play a role in the overall approach.

All these things are important to establish context and provide us with a framework to work within. However, on their own, they are not the entirety of what you need to know to plan and field a design. More is required to do that – in particular, gathering and putting together everything you need to know to lay out a full set of requirements systematically. This chapter is all about establishing those important boundaries: what our scope will be, how we can go about...