Architectural Quality Attributes
September 14th, 2022
When building a new system, one of the first things I like to understand are the desired quality attributes. These aren't something I hear too much about, so I like to bring them up when I can. That said, what are they?
Quality attributes are characteristics of software which inform structural components of the design. They are critical to the success of the software, though they often aren't outright stated. And they usually aren't tied up in the domain of the problem-space. For example, imagine a high-frequency trading platform. It needs to be stable and fast. For something like this you might specify fault-tolerance, scalability, and traceability as attributes important to the architecture.
Once you've settled on quality attributes, you can imagine how they might inform the architecture of the system. These can help you decide whether a monolith is appropriate, whether micro services can offer a strong option, or maybe even point you towards a space-based architecture.
The point being is that understanding these attributes can lead to better informed decisions around what needs to be built, how you might add to an existing system, or what new architecture an existing system might best evolve into.