On quality attribute based software engineering

Abstract

Software components are an incarnation of architectural means to better cope with the variety of quality aspects of software systems. Unfortunately, architectural artifacts appear somewhat magically sometimes, and so do components. Components are not a major extension to OO in the programming language or functional modeling sense, but a basis to address many of the quality requirements, be they discernable or non-discernable at system runtime. CBSE, being the discipline of engineering with components, is a promising basis to more explicitly and systematically design with and for quality attributes. After defining the context and classifying quality attributes, we first illustrate the important relationship of quality attributes to use case realizations. Second, we argue for components as the fulcrum point for the realization of functional and extra-functional roles. Third we identify ongoing research directions that we consider conducive towards a software engineering process that supports the design for functional and extra-functional requirements.