CPSA Quality Attributes and Scenarios 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which ISO 25010 quality characteristic encompasses sub-characteristics such as co-existence and interoperability?
- Maintainability
- Compatibility (Correct answer)
- Portability
- Reliability
Correct answer: Compatibility
Compatibility in ISO 25010 includes co-existence (sharing an environment without interference) and interoperability (exchanging information with other systems).
Question 2: A quality scenario specifying 'under normal operations' is describing which scenario component?
- Stimulus
- Response
- Environment (Correct answer)
- Artifact
Correct answer: Environment
The environment component of a quality scenario describes the operational context or state of the system when the stimulus occurs.
Question 3: Testability as a quality attribute is MOST directly related to which architectural concern?
- Ensuring the system can run in multiple cloud environments
- Enabling isolation of components so they can be tested independently (Correct answer)
- Reducing the time to deploy new releases
- Protecting data from unauthorized modification
Correct answer: Enabling isolation of components so they can be tested independently
Testability requires that components can be observed and controlled in isolation, which directly shapes architectural decisions like separation of concerns.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST describes a 'concrete quality scenario' in iSAQB terms?
- A vague goal like 'the system should be fast'
- A scenario with all six parts filled in with specific, measurable values (Correct answer)
- A general scenario template without specific numeric thresholds
- A scenario that only applies to security attributes
Correct answer: A scenario with all six parts filled in with specific, measurable values
Concrete scenarios specify all six parts (source, stimulus, artifact, environment, response, response measure) with precise, measurable details.
Question 5: Mean Time To Recover (MTTR) is a response measure most associated with which quality attribute?
- Performance efficiency
- Recoverability (sub-characteristic of Reliability) (Correct answer)
- Maintainability
- Portability
Correct answer: Recoverability (sub-characteristic of Reliability)
MTTR measures how quickly a system recovers after a failure, which is the core concern of the recoverability sub-characteristic.
Question 6: An architect uses quality scenarios to:
- Replace user stories in agile projects
- Make quality requirements concrete, testable, and comparable to prioritize architectural decisions (Correct answer)
- Document the system's source code structure
- Define the deployment pipeline stages
Correct answer: Make quality requirements concrete, testable, and comparable to prioritize architectural decisions
Quality scenarios transform vague quality goals into specific, testable statements that guide and justify architectural decisions.
Question 7: Which quality attribute is MOST impacted by architectural decisions about data replication and geographic distribution?
- Usability
- Availability (Correct answer)
- Maintainability
- Testability
Correct answer: Availability
Availability is directly shaped by redundancy, replication, and failover strategies that geographic distribution enables.
CPSA Quality Attributes and Scenarios 3
Which ISO 25010 quality characteristic encompasses sub-characteristics such as co-existence and interoperability?