SEI Reasoning About Software Quality Attributes

Source identity:

ddx:
  id: resource.sei-quality-attribute-scenarios

SEI Reasoning About Software Quality Attributes

Source

URL: https://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/reasoning-about-software-quality-attributes/
Accessed: 2026-05-12

Summary

The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute describes quality attributes such as performance, security, modifiability, reliability, and usability as major influences on software architecture. SEI guidance emphasizes making these attributes concrete through scenarios so teams can reason about whether design choices support the desired quality outcomes.

Relevant Findings

Quality attributes materially shape architecture and cannot be treated as afterthoughts.
A quality attribute name is not enough; teams need concrete scenarios or practices that explain how the attribute should affect decisions.
Different quality attributes can interact or conflict, so guidance should expose likely side effects and tradeoffs.
System-independent quality guidance becomes useful when translated into the specific project context.

HELIX Usage

This resource informs the Project Concerns artifact. HELIX uses it to require concerns to carry actionable practices, area scope, and conflict resolution rather than a bare list of quality labels.

Authority Boundary

This resource supports quality-attribute reasoning. It does not replace HELIX Project Principles, ADRs, Technical Designs, or test plans, all of which own different levels of decision and verification detail.