Today, client/server technology is recognized as a general solution capable of resolving the various problems that legacy information systems have faced. Consequently, the number of firms that have transitioned to or are planning to transition to a client/server environment is growing rapidly. However, despite the diverse technological advances surrounding client/server computing, the following issues have received little attention: What types of client/server systems are possible? Which business tasks are most suitable for a client/server environment? What is the relationship between client/server environment types and the characteristics of applied tasks? Ironically, there has been no notable research or proposed alternatives addressing these fundamental questions that are first encountered when attempting to build systems in a client/server environment. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines that enable corporate information systems managers or system developers to build the optimal client/server type that matches the characteristics of the tasks they intend to implement. To this end, this paper systematically derived the possible basic types of distributed applications and classified the characteristics of each task into 61 items, then quantitatively calculated the fit between basic types and each task characteristic by synthesizing expert opinions. According to the results of this study, there are a total of 14 basic types of distributed applications under the client/server environment, and four dimensions must be considered for application criteria. When building a client/server system, by analyzing the characteristics of the task in detail and comparing the resulting requirements against each item in the application criteria, one can identify which type of distributed application best reflects the characteristics of the given task, thereby enabling the construction of an optimal client/server system.