The authors discuss the application of software architecture to requirements analysis. More specifically, they discuss how problem frames that are used in the problem space can benefit from software architecture, which is the first step in the solution space. To this end, the authors introduce the notion of the architectural frame (AFrame), which is intended to implement the separation of concern strategy by the compositing and decompositing of problems (or subproblems). To show the practicality of their approach, the authors use the classical pipe/fitter architectural styles.

The main contribution of this work revolves around the application of architectural styles, which is used as the road map in the requirements analysis, and the notion of AFrame, which is intended to map the solution space to the problem space.

The paper is well organized and well written. However, the applicability of the approach is not clear at all, so the validly of it is questionable. For the most part, going from the solution space to the problem space is not an easy task, because the selection of the right software architecture is perceived by the software architecture community as a matter of success or failure for any software system. The paper fails to enumerate the criteria for selecting the proper software architecture for the problem space. According to this paper, any software architecture can be used toward the problem space.