CPSA Quality Attributes and Scenarios 5

Question 1

Which technique is commonly used alongside quality scenarios to systematically evaluate how well an architecture meets quality goals?

Accepted Answer

Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM)

Answer

ATAM uses quality attribute scenarios as input to identify architectural risks, sensitivity points, and trade-offs in the proposed architecture.

Question 2

In a performance quality scenario, 'the system processes 1,000 transactions per second under peak load' is the:

Accepted Answer

Response measure

Answer

The response measure is the quantifiable criterion that determines whether the system's response meets the quality goal.

Question 3

Which quality attribute is MOST relevant when a system must continue operating correctly even if one of its microservices fails?

Accepted Answer

Reliability — specifically fault tolerance

Answer

Fault tolerance, a sub-characteristic of Reliability, ensures the system continues to operate correctly despite component failures.

Question 4

The concept of 'sensitivity points' in ATAM refers to:

Accepted Answer

Architectural decisions that have a significant impact on one or more quality attributes

Answer

Sensitivity points are architectural decisions where a small change significantly affects one or more quality attribute responses.

Question 5

Which quality attribute scenario would BEST help an architect decide between a monolithic and a microservices architecture?

Accepted Answer

A modifiability scenario where a single team must deploy a new feature independently without affecting other teams

Answer

Independent deployability and team autonomy are modifiability concerns that strongly favor a microservices architecture over a monolith.

CPSA Exam Practice Test