A Quality Attributes Evaluation Method for an Agile Approach

Rapid change of customer requirements has propelled the emergence of an agile approach due to such merits as fast release and simplified documents. An agile approach aims at maximizing productivity and effectiveness. Participants in an agile project usually focus on functionality of a system during the process. However, there are few considerations for nonfunctional requirements (or quality requirements) such as performance, security and accuracy. This causes huge costs, and wastes efforts for later changes. A novel approach is required to strengthen non-functional aspects in an agile approach. We propose a lightweight quality evaluation method that reflects quality attributes to enhance non-functional features in an agile approach. Our approach enables iterative evaluation of quality attributes in each release. It supports participants to continuously consider quality issues. In addition, participants are able to make plans on quality improvements.