The business goals viewpoint

Abstract

Architectures come about through forces and needs other than those captured in traditional requirements documents. A business goal expresses why a system is being developed and what stakeholders in the developing organization, the customer organization, and beyond aspire to achieve through its production and use. Business goals can provide the rationale for requirements and help identify missing or superfluous requirements. Business goals can also influence architectures directly, even without affecting requirements at all. A business goals viewpoint can help architects and organizations capture their business goals in a precise and unambiguous form, which in turn will help architects design systems that are more responsive to organizational needs. © 2006 IEEE.