12 software architecture quality attributes

Last time we figured out the role, skills, and duties of a software architect. But what happens when functional requirements are formulated and software architect found the way how the system should work? In this material, we’ll make a short overview of 12 software architecture quality attributes and quality attributes types.

This is the list of

12 software architecture quality attributes

1. Performance – shows the response of the system to performing certain actions for a certain period of time.
2. Interoperability is an attribute of the system or part of the system that is responsible for its operation and the transmission of data and its exchange with other external systems.
3. Usability is one of the most important attributes, because, unlike in cases with other attributes, users can see directly how well this attribute of the system is worked out.
4. Reliability is an attribute of the system responsible for the ability to continue to operate under predefined conditions.
5. Availability is part of reliability and is expressed as the ratio of the available system time to the total working time.
6. Security is responsible for the ability of the system to reduce the likelihood of malicious or accidental actions as well as the possibility of theft or loss of information.
7. Maintainability is the ability of the system to support changes.
8. Modifiability determines how many common changes need to be made to the system to make changes to each individual item.
9. Testability shows how well the system allows performing tests, according to predefined criteria.
10. Scalability is the ability of the system to handle load increases without decreasing performance, or the possibility to rapidly increase the load.
11. Reusability is a chance of using a component or system in other components/systems with small or no change.
12. Supportability is the ability of the system to provide useful information for identifying and solving problems.

Credits to Nikolay Ashanin for creating this useful list.