Towards a theory on the interaction between requirements engineering and systems architecting

Theory building is of foundational importance for the progress of a discipline. In requirements engineering (RE), empirically grounded theory on the interaction between Requirements Engineering and Systems Architecting (SA) is scattered and anecdotal. This weakness may be affecting the way RE and SA processes are designed which, in turn, may be having a negative impact on project time, cost, and quality. In this paper, we describe elements of an emerging theory with a vision that lays the scientific underpinnings of the RE-SA interaction. The significance, potential implications, and future work are discussed.