\section{Does architecture belong in the research laboratory?}

Research laboratories are used to in-depth technology research,
where system know how is mostly required to build a proof of concept.
Architecting at the other hand is very broad and not tangible.
Figure~\ref{fig:TechnologyManagementCycle} shows a model for
technology management\cite{article:TechnologyManagementCycle},
based upon 3 phase cycle.

\FigureImposeWidth{TechnologyManagementCycle}{Architecture and research?
The technology management cycle}{.6\textwidth}

One of the main functions of research is technology exploration,
where the technology application is needed for learning and proof of
concept. The consolidation is needed for the transfer.

Product divisions focus on short and medium term business objectives,
research is taking care of the long term. Redefinition of architecting
as enabling technology to specify, design and integrate complex systems,
fits architecting in a natural way in this technology management model.
It makes quite a lot of sense to explore architecting methods as well
as consolidate architecting methods.

However the application of architecting methods often needs
the full product creation context, which means that the application
often happens in close cooperation with the industry, the
so called {\bf industry as laboratory}.

\FigureTextwidth{MSarchitectureAndScience}{Is architecting scientific?}

The next question is: {\it Is architecting research {\bf scientific}?}.
The answer of this question requires a philosophical basis, what do
we mean with {\it scientific}?
Figure~\ref{fig:MSarchitectureAndScience} shows several sciences as
a spectrum with respect to the hardness level of the scientific methods.
This figure shows that architecting methods span a significant range
of scientific methods. Or in other words the architecture researcher
borrows methods from other scientific paradigms, striving for as hard
results as possible\footnote{Which means that the results can be very soft.
How to distinguish plausible results from an integer researcher from
convincing results from a charlatan?}
