Reference Architecture in Relation to Business Reasoning

Companies operate invariably in an ecosystem of suppliers and competitors. For such companies, business strategies require a careful product portfolio positioning on basis of market differentiators. Relating business strategy to consequences on product architectures and components requires due-diligence analysis on how products function and their essential qualities in relation to the market differentiators looked for.Missing an understanding of the architectural impact of such business strategies may lead to business challenges or potentially losing a competitive advantage. This paper shows how a reference architecture can capture the architectural impact of market differentiators, and make explicit the core know-how, and core components. With an example from the E-bike market, this paper shows how different differentiators may lead to different core components in support of the business strategy.