Owing to the ever growing complexity of present day computer vision systems, system architecture has become an emerging topic in vision research. Systems that integrate numerous modules and algorithms of different I/O and time scale behavior require sound and reliable concepts for interprocess communication. Consequently, topics and methods known from software and systems engineering are becoming increasingly important. Especially framework technologies for system integration are required. This contribution results from a cooperation between two multinational projects on cognitive vision. It discusses functional and non-functional requirements in cognitive vision and compares and assesses existing solutions.