Bridging the Twin Peaks -- The Case of the Software Industry

Abstract

We review the relationship between software architecture and requirements in the context of software products. Based on empirical evidence from a comparative case study, we promote four positions: (1) the requirements/architecture alignment problem for software products is inherently different than the same problem for tailor-made software, (2) bridging the Twin Peaks corresponds to defining and enacting a stepwise evolution of the product architecture, (3) communication tasks are ascribed to the product manager rather than the architect, and (4) integrated and cross-disciplinary tools are key to maintain requirements/architecture alignment. We argue that these positions motivate and characterize future research in the field.