Business standpoint

Here, we will be analyzing the statement from a business perspective, taking into account all the aspects that can affect our design:

• A main requirement is performance, as this affects how many hits the solution can sustain. Since this is one of the main objectives of the solution, it needs to be sized to meet business expectations.
• Budget seems to be the main constraint that will affect the project's design and scope.
• There is no mention of the actual available budget.
• Availability requirements affect how the business should react in case of an outage. As there's no specific service level agreement (SLA), this needs to be clarified to adjust to the business needs.
• A main concern is the upfront cost. This can be lowered considerably by utilizing OSS, as there are no licensing fees.
• It has been mentioned that the solution needs to remain up during maintenance operations. This might indicate that the customer is willing to invest in maintenance operation for further upgrades or enhancements.
• The statement—we're also expecting this to gain momentum, indicates that the solution will change in the amount of resources needed, thus directly affecting the amount of money consumed by it.

The following are questions to ask when clarifying doubts from a business standpoint:

• Based on the performance requirements, what is the business impact when performance goes below the expected baseline?
• What is the actual budget for the project?
• Does the budget take into account maintenance operations?
• Considering the possible unplanned outages and maintenance, how much time exactly can your website be down per year? Will this affect business continuity?
• If an outage happens, how much time can the application tolerate not receiving data?
• Do we have data of any sort from which we can estimate how much your userbase will grow?
• Do you have any procurement process in place?
• How much time does it take to approve the acquisition of new hardware or resources?