Phase A is where a specific architecture engagement begins. It sets scope, secures sponsorship, and produces the aspirational Architecture Vision. A weak Phase A means every later phase elaborates the wrong direction — expensive to unwind.

On the exam, Phase A is heavy on 'which deliverable' and 'what's the difference between the Request, the Vision and the Statement of Architecture Work'.

Phase A is triggered by a Request for Architecture Work. Its objectives: develop a high-level Architecture Vision, define scope, identify stakeholders, their concerns and business requirements, confirm and elaborate architecture principles, and evaluate business transformation readiness. It obtains approval to proceed.

The Architecture Vision is a high-level, aspirational view of the target — enough to gain agreement and sponsorship, not the detailed design. Business scenarios are a common technique to derive it.

The defining deliverable is the Statement of Architecture Work, approved by sponsors — effectively the contract for the engagement (scope, roles, schedule, resources).

For the loan-approval programme, Phase A frames scope ('retail lending, UK'), lists stakeholders (Risk, Ops, Compliance) and their concerns, sketches a Vision ('same-day decisions with automated risk checks'), assesses readiness for the change, and packages it into a Statement of Architecture Work the sponsor signs — before the team builds detailed Business/IS/Tech architectures in B–D.

Phase A consumes the capability and principles from Preliminary, and feeds Phases B–D (which elaborate the Vision into detailed target architectures). Transformation-readiness and stakeholder techniques used here are ADM Techniques (a later topic).