Documenting quality attributes

Quality starts from an accurate, structured, and consistent definition of quality attributes. Quality attributes are long-living representations useful for continuous improvements even after systems are deployed in production. Therefore, quality attributes have to be systematically maintained with periodic reviews.

Mannion and Keepence recommend using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realizable, Traceable) model to capture measurable quality attributes with a high degree of accuracy without ambiguity. In this section, we discuss various SMART approaches for documenting quality attributes.

Using the scaled Agile approach for specifying quality attributes

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) uses NFRs as a terminology instead of quality attributes. The framework recommends defining NFRs within a bounded context, as independent as possible, negotiable, and testable. SAFe proposes a model as shown in the following diagram for describing NFRs...