The brief development history and dominant factors of forming ability of bulk amorphous alloys were surveyed. The forming mechanisms of bulk amorphous alloys were investigated from the viewpoints of thermodynamics

kinetics and structure. The criteria for bulk amorphous alloys design were introduced. It was pointed out that

molten metal having high density random close-packed topology structure

restraining the homogeneous nucleation and nuclei growth of the supercooled melt as possible

increasing the cooling rate and reducing or eliminating heterogeneous nucleation

would be helpful to form bulk amorphous alloy.