Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform

Deciding upon your architecture strategy

Once the core requirements are set forth, we as architects can begin to craft the major patterns that make up the solution architecture. It would be a grave mistake to jump directly from requirements gathering to a product selection. You would never say "BizTalk is the choice for all our solutions", unless you were clinically insane or ate paint chips as a child. Likewise, it would be foolish to jump immediately to a custom solution unless you had evaluated and eliminated packaged applications as a viable choice. Your architecture strategy should be driven by a full assessment of the architecture quality attributes required by your solution.

Turning requirements into patterns is beyond the scope of this ...