Hardware limits

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The question of hardware needs to be addressed from the outset. Software which requires 16M of working memory, RAM, will not run on a machine which has 8M.

To change half way through system will be extraordinarily expensive. Hardware limits define the outer perimeters of what can be done. Hardware needso be able to cope with extra hardware being added on if the need arises. Windows95 swept the world not just because of the marketing but also because it is "plug and play". New hardware items can be added relatively easily.

Anyone who has ever battled with adding new hardware...say a scuzzy drive deskbed scanner...to a system running WindowsNT will know that sometimes having a better operating system is just not worth the hardware war.

On the hardware front, thin clients and an intranet do help prolong the life of an aging system, but they do not yet solve every kind of hardware limitation.

Some hardware is better than other hardware for reasons connected to yet other hardware.
This is an area where good IT advice is critical, and understanding what you are being told is equally vital.

If halfway through development the user decides that they are not happy about the system and what it is going to do, and the changes cannot be made without changing the hardware, then the result is exactly the same result as occurs when a person building a house completely changes their mind about the bathroom layout just after the first fix plumbing is done.

Changing horses in mid stream is a very expensive business, and one very likely to result in becoming embroiled a very ugly dispute.