Quality requirements

Warning

🚧 This section is still in active development and is subject to changes 🚧

Quality requirements

The architectural quality requirements are the quality attributes that the system must have. These requirements are derived from the business requirements and the constraints of the system. The quality requirements are the non-functional requirements that the system must have. For Seedcase we have sought inspiration from the ISO 25010 standard for software quality requirements as well as the arc42 Documentation sections 1.2 and 10. The ISO 25010 standard defines nine quality requirements that a software system must have. These are:

  1. Functional suitability: The system must have the functions that the users need.
  2. Performance efficiency: The system must have the performance that the users need.
  3. Compatibility: The system must be compatible with other systems.
  4. Interaction Capability: The system must be easy to use and protect against user errors.
  5. Reliability: The system must be reliable.
  6. Security: The system must be secure.
  7. Maintainability: The system must be maintainable.
  8. Flexibility: The system must be flexible.
  9. Safety: The system must be safe and be able to protect against accidents.

In the arc42 guidelines it is recommended that a project focus on between three and five of the above areas as the primary quality requirements. For Seedcase we have chosen to focus on functional suitability, interaction capability, reliability, and security.

Functional suitability

The system must have the functions that the users need. The ISO standard talks about completeness, correctness, and appropriateness which are all important aspects of functional suitability. We want all Seedcase products to have all the functions that are needed to store, organise, and retrieve research data. We want Seedcase to store data in a way that it stays correct, and is easy to maintain, and we want Seedcase to be have the appropriate features for the user.

Interaction capability

There are many items covered in the ISO standard under the heading Interaction Capability. The ones we would like to initially focus on are: Learnability, Operability, Inclusivity and Self-descriptiveness.

  • Learnability relates to how easy it is for a user to learn how to use the system. It has to do with the intuitiveness of the system as well as the availability of help and documentation.
  • Operability is about how easy it is to use the system, how the functionality links together, and how the different parts of Seedcase will support each other.
  • Inclusivity is about how easy it is for all users to use the system, regardless of their abilities.
  • Self-descriptiveness is about how easy it is for a user to understand what the system is doing and how it is doing it, which are highly dependent on the user interface and documentation.

Reliability

A system that isn’t performing reliably is not going to be used. Seedcase must not be seen as something that breaks every time a new update has been applied, or just gives up for no reason at all. The best way to achieve this is by spending enough time on the architecture and design of the system, and by having a good test coverage. We want to make sure that Seedcase is reliable and that it can be trusted to store and retrieve information.

Security

Because Seedcase is aimed at the medical research sector, security is paramount. We want to make sure that the data stored in Seedcase is secure and that only the people who are supposed to have access to the data can access it. It should also be protected against attacks as well as ensuring that once data is stored in the system it is not lost. Another aspect of security is to ensure that the system is compliant with the relevant data protection laws, this is especially important in the medical research sector.