Concept: Architecturally Significant Requirements
Some requirements have a profound impact on the architecture of the solution and require special attention.
Relationships
Main Description

Not all requirements have equal significance in the architecture. Some play an important role in determining the architecture of the system, but others do not.

Deciding whether a specific requirement is architecturally significant is often a matter of judgment. Typically, these are requirements that are technically challenging, technically constraining, or central to the system's purpose.

These are good examples of Architecturally Significant Requirements:

  • The system must record every modification to customer records for audit purposes.
  • The system must respond within 5 seconds.
  • The system must deploy on Microsoft Windows XP and Linux.
  • The system must encrypt all network traffic.
  • The ATM system must dispense cash on demand to validated account holders with sufficient cleared funds.