Architects in Demand, Curricula Behind: A Gap Analysis of Software Architecture Training

Software architects are central to the design and evolution of modern software systems, yet it remains unclear whether academic programs prepare students for the competencies required in practice. This study compares 658 Software Architect job postings from 38 countries with 588 software architecture courses from the top 100 CSRankings institutions. Using TF-IDF, n-gram analysis, a 19-topic LDA model, and SWEBOK-based coding, we analyze industry expectations (RQ1), academic coverage (RQ2), and alignment (RQ3). Industry emphasizes cloud and DevOps competencies (69% cloud, 44% DevOps, 30% containers, 25.8% microservices) and stakeholder engagement (50.2%), while curricula focus on structural concepts (50% patterns) and technical foundations (74.3%) but provide limited coverage of lifecycle practices (16.3%), operational tasks (9.4%), and soft skills (13.4%). These gaps highlight the need for curricula that integrate cloud-native, continuous, and sociotechnical dimensions of architecture practice.