Connecting the User to the Payload
For Application Architecture, the software engines that will process the business’s data should be defined. Phase 3 defines the logical software components, their integrations, and how they execute the business services established in Phase 1. Skipping this phase risks building a highly resilient, expensive infrastructure layer that hosts fragmented, incompatible, or redundant software applications.
Core Objectives of Phase 3
Define the Software Landscape:
Visually demonstrate the specific software platforms being deployed and how they logically group together to form a cohesive system.
Map the Integrations:
Document exactly how these applications talk to each other (e.g., REST APIs, web services, LDAP queries) to prevent isolated software silos and ensure seamless data dissemination.
Align to Business Services:
Create the structural blueprint that traces every software component directly back to the specific business workflows and user personas they are meant to enable.
Establish Application Boundaries:
Identify which software systems are internal to the secure environment versus which applications are external or legacy, defining clear logical perimeters for the software stack.
Primary Stakeholders
The artifacts generated in this phase are tailored for Application Owners, Enterprise Architects, System Integration Leads, and Software Engineers. The language used in these diagrams begins the critical transition from pure business logic into technical execution. While avoiding details of physical hypervisors, hardware storage arrays, or exact network switch configurations (saved for Phase 4), software platforms, integration protocols, and the logical application environments should be clearly defined.
