Getting started with quality-attribute scenarios
Once you have identified a list of quality attributes applicable to your system, you are ready to define quality-attribute scenarios. The purpose of these scenarios is to connect the dots between the events, their outcome, and the expected answer from the architecture. ATAM describes the following three types of scenarios:
- Use case
- Growth
- Exploratory scenarios
Most of the time, only use case scenarios are considered. They intend to describe possible use cases and the expected response from the architecture. Growth and exploratory scenarios aim to anticipate what could come next. The selection of the appropriate scenario should be done in agreement with the relevant stakeholders, including product owners and project managers. While ATAM provides tools such as utility trees to translate business goals into quality attributes, the reality shows that we often end up with an Excel sheet (or Word document) regrouping...
