Business case	A rationale and business justification for spending time and money. Generally speaking, the essential elements are · ROI (benefits – costs), · Options (business or technical), · Impacts (work to be done and changes to be made) · Risks. These terms are defined separately in this reference model. There should be a business case for work to describe an architecture and/or to implement an architecture as operational systems. An outline business case is needed before architecture definition starts in earnest. It will be reviewed and refined several times later in the process, and perhaps decomposed into business cases for specific options or projects within the overall solution.
Return on Investment (ROI)	A statement of benefits gained minus costs spent. Costs must cover development, implementation, operation and maintenance. Benefits may include money made, money saved, regulations complied and the resolution of specific problems. E.g. the benefit of data integrity reflect is save the cost of data disintegrity.
Solution Options	Alternative designs. It is usual, at least at the solution vision stage, to describe two or more alternatives. They may be compared at several stages and at several levels of design. The choice can be guided by: · cost-benefit analysis, · risk analysis, · gap analysis and · trade-off analysis.
Cost-benefit analysis	An assessment of the costs and the benefits of a course of action and/or a proposed system.
Risk analysis	Analysis of vulnerabilities that threaten the ability of a target system to meet requirements, especially non-functional requirements, including security. Risk analysis is needed before architecture definition starts in earnest, and then several times later in the process, and at several levels of design.
Gap analysis (options)	Generally, a technique for comparing two similar lists or structures, to find potentially missing items. It can be used to compare two optional solutions, and identify gaps in one or both. It helps if the two options are presented under the same structure as each other, or a more general structure.
Trade-off analysis	A process in which a consultant leads analysis of target system options and the trade offs between them. Published and promoted by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.
Business scenario	A process, or story, to which are attached details of the actors, applications and technologies involved. A good way to create and present an architecture description. May be defined during business architecture definition. May be defined to support a solution vision or business case. Often presented as an example instance of a business process.