Quality Attributes - Architecting Systems to Meet Customer Expectations

Abstract

This paper addresses the use of quality attributes as a mechanism for making objective decisions about architectural tradeoffs and for providing reasonably accurate predictions about how well candidate architectures will meet customer expectations. Typical quality attributes important to many current systems of interest include: performance, dependability, security, and safety. This paper begins with an examination of how quality attributes and architectures are related, including some the seminal work in the area, and a survey of the current standards addressing product quality and evaluation. The implications for both the customer and the system developer of employing a quality- attribute-based approach to architecture definition and trade-off are then briefly explored. The paper also touches on the relationship of an architectural quality-attribute-based approach to engineering process and process maturity. Lastly the special concerns of architecting for system assurance are addressed.