This chapter outlined the solutioning part of NFRs, providing insights, guidance and principles for architecting NFRs. This chapter covered all the key NFRs that are critical for any project. For each NFR, it provided the various alternatives pertaining to the solution and design principles that need to be applied to achieve the desired outcome, for example, high availability, scalability, reliability, and so on. The chapter included considerations for bespoke (Java, .NET) and COTS applications and is applicable to IT applications/systems in different domains.

The next chapter outlines the patterns for NFRs, providing insights into architectural patterns and its impact on NFRs. The chapter covers all the key tiers /layers that are critical for any project and describes various patterns pertaining to the business, database and integration tiers. It also covers the impact on various NFRs vis-a-visa the patterns. This chapter will also describe the trade-offs between various NFRs and the best practices to be applied on engagements.