Transformation from Requirements to Architectures is not Automatic

After we have discussed the relation of architecture modelling to all surrounding working areas, from requirements engineering to management in chapter 10, we go deeper now by investigating the specifics of the transformation from requirements engineering to architecture modelling. This is the most interesting transformation. In section 1 of this chapter, we summarize again the central role of the architecture and which problems still remain. Section 2 discusses, that the upper part of the architecture „can be derived“ from the requirements specification by the architect making interactive decisions. The lower parts more correspond to technical decisions. Section 3 addresses the transformation RE to AR for a classical requirements spec. In section 4, we study this transformation for an OO requirements spec; the ideas are rather similar. In both cases, we see that there are various possibilities for the mapping, such that the architect has to map interactively. Section 5 sketches the transformation for an embedded system, where even more technical details have to be regarded. Section 6 discusses the rare case that the transformation can be automated, which demands for a long period of gaining experience. This altogether explains the title of the chapter. Section 7 gives a summary and open problems.