List of system quality attributes

Within systems engineering, quality attributes are non-functional requirements used to evaluate the performance of a system. These are sometimes named "ilities" after the suffix many of the words share. Notable quality attributes include:

• accessibility
• accountability
• accuracy
• adaptability
• administrability
• affordability
• agility (see Common Subsets below)
• auditability
• autonomy [Erl]
• availability
• credibility
• process capabilities
• compatibility
• composability [Erl]
• configurability
• correctness
• customizability
• debugability
• degradability
• determinability
• demonstrability
• dependability
• deployability
• discoverability [Erl]
• distributability
• durability
• effectiveness
• efficiency
• evolvability
• extensibility
• failure transparency
• fault-tolerance
• fidelity
• flexibility
• inspectability
• installability
• Integrity
• interchangeability
• interoperability [Erl]
• learnability
• maintainability
• manageability

• mobility
• modifiability
• modularity
• operability
• orthogonality
• portability
• precision
• predictability
• producibility
• provability
• recoverability
• relevance
• reliability
• repeatability
• reproducibility
• resilience
• responsiveness
• reusability [Erl]
• robustness
• safety
• scalability
• seamlessness
• self-sustainability
• serviceability (a.k.a. supportability)
• securability
• simplicity
• stability
• standards compliance
• survivability
• sustainability
• tailorability
• testability
• timeliness
• traceability
• ubiquity
• understandability
• upgradability
• usability

Many of these quality attributes can also be applied to data quality.

Common Subsets

• A subset of them (reliability, availability, serviceability, usability, and installability) are together referred to as RASUI.
• Another subset used for software requirements (functionality, usability, reliability, performance, supportability) are together referred to as FURPS.
• Agility in working software is an aggregation of seven architecturally sensitive attributes (debuggability, extensibility, portability, scalability, securability, testability, understandability).
• For databases RASR is an important concept (reliability, availability, scalability, and recoverability).
• Also, ACID for atomicity, consistency, isolation (sometimes integrity), durability.
• When dealing with safety-critical systems, the acronym RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety) is frequently used.
• Dependability is an aggregate of Availability, Reliability, Safety, Integrity, and Maintainability.
  • Integrity depends on Security and Survivability.
  • Security is a composite of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. (Security and Dependability are often treated together.)

See also

• Information quality
• ISO/IEC 9126 Software engineering—product quality
• Cognitive dimensions of notations
• Software quality

Further reading

• Erl, Thomas (2008), "SOA: Principles of Service Design", Prentice Hall, NJ.
• Gitzel, Korthausa, Schadera (2007). "Using established Web Engineering knowledge in model-driven approaches". Science of Computer Programming 66(2), 30 April 2007, 105–124.