The Difference between Marketecture and Tarchitecture

O ver the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to help build a fairly diverse set of software solutions. Along the way, I’ve played various roles, including individual contributor, direct manager, and senior member of the corporate executive staff. I’ve worked in engineering, product marketing and product management, quality assurance, firstand second-line support organizations, and on technical publications. One thing I’ve learned is that a gap often exists between product management/marketing and engineering/development organizations. Although we might briefly chuckle when Dilbert calls attention to this gap, most of us who’ve lived through it (or helped cause it) cringe at its effects: product and service offerings that ultimately fail to meet market needs. An essential step to bridging this gap is to clarify the various responsibilities associated with product management and marketing versus those associated with product engineering and development. We must also clarify the manner in which the marketing and technical aspects of the system work together to accomplish business objectives.