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Software Architecture Guide

Tactic Coverage of ISO 25010 Quality Categories

Explanation

Section titled “Explanation”

ISO 25010 is a standard list of product quality characteristics. Architectural tactics are proven design moves that improve one quality (see Architectural Tactic). Tactic catalogs and ISO 25010 do not line up one to one.

The two vocabularies differ in size. The quality model from Bass et al. has about 10 attributes. ISO 25010 has roughly 40 terms. Because of this gap, you need a mapping before you can say which ISO characteristic a catalog covers.

Some catalog terms are missing from ISO 25010 (2011). Scalability, deployability, energy efficiency and safety appear in tactic catalogs but not in the 2011 standard. Operational topics such as deployability are absent altogether. Mapping deployability therefore needs a stand-in, such as installability.

Testability sits in one place in ISO. ISO files testability under maintainability. The arc42 quality model’s author argues it should also appear under reliability. When you map a testability tactic, state which parent you mean.

Bass et al. split attributes into two groups. They define a quality attribute as a measurable or testable property of a system. They sort attributes into runtime and development categories.

Functional suitability has its own shape. It means the degree to which functions meet stated and implied needs. Its sub-characteristics are completeness, appropriateness and correctness.

The 2023 edition adds terms. The 2023 edition, as shown by iso25000.com, lists nine characteristics. It includes Interaction Capability and keeps functional suitability with completeness, correctness and appropriateness. Check which edition a document refers to before mapping.

Example

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A team reads a tactic catalog with a chapter on deployability. They look for “deployability” in ISO 25010 (2011) and find nothing. They note installability as the closest ISO term and write that choice down. They do the same for testability and record that it sits under maintainability in ISO.

Trade-offs

Section titled “Trade-offs”

A mapping makes catalogs usable with ISO terms, but every stand-in is a judgment call. Installability only approximates deployability. Testability could sit under maintainability or reliability. Different teams may map the same term differently, so write the mapping down. The facts here do not say which ISO characteristics each catalog covers, so check that against the catalogs themselves.

Checks

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  • The document states which ISO 25010 edition (2011 or 2023) its quality terms come from.
  • Where a tactic term has no ISO 25010 (2011) equivalent, such as deployability, the document names the stand-in term used, for example installability.
  • The document says where testability is placed (maintainability, reliability or both).
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Sources

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