Technological Requirements

The purpose of the architectural analysis phase is to define the technological requirements of the problem domain. It is possible that the the architecture you will use for your implementation already exists.
Mapping the requirements of the problem domain against the existing architecture will allow you to:

1. Identify specific deficiencies in the current architecture and provide a means to evaluate the cost/benefit of the needed changes, or
2. Validate the current architecture.

Mapping the needs of your problem domain against the existing architecture also prevents you from being blindsided in subsequent phases by limitations or shortcomings of the architecture.

The key task of the architectural analysis phase is to uncover user expectations that will place specific requirements on the architecture you will use for your implementation. Issues such as security, number of users, data and processing distribution, shared resources, response time, real-time versus batch processing. All these things directly affect your architectural choices and should be thoroughly analyzed.

The choices you make during the architectural analysis phase will in turn directly affect--and sometimes even dictate or eliminate--your choices during the object design phase.

The architectural analysis phase is not the time to discuss programming or design options. To proceed with object design without first defining the architecture of your implementation environment can lead to wasted development time and resources. Technology, topology, and the system resources that make up the architecture of the problem domain will dictate many of your design and programming options.