Can We Transform Requirements into Architecture?

Model-driven transformations allow the generation of lower-level models and code from higher-level models of a software design, where all these artifacts are in the solution space. The situation is inherently different, however, for transformations from problem space to solution space. The architectural design cannot be fully transformed from requirements in general, since this would imply that the transformation would involve a "magic" problem solver. We investigate and discuss this issue to figure out what can be mapped or transformed for a given set of requirements. While an architectural style or pattern can be selected according to given (non-functional) requirements, this does not mean that the architecture is transformed from requirements. Still, it is possible to transform select parts of a software architecture representation tentatively from certain requirements representations. However, adaptations of the rules or of the generated result will usually be needed.