Quality requirements refer to the specific standards that a product, service, process, or environment must meet in order to be considered of high quality. Quality can refer to both tangible and intangible elements that add value beyond the functional features of a product or service. Quality requirements help to ensure that products, services, processes, and environments meet the needs and expectations of customers and stakeholders. By defining quality requirements, businesses can ensure that they are consistently delivering high-quality offerings that meet the needs of their customers. The following are illustrative examples of quality requirements.
Reliability
Enduring and consistent performance in real world conditions. For example, a drum designed to maintain its sound for at least 150,000 strikes.
Consistency
The requirement that units be the same or that units be internally consistent. For example, apples that are mostly the same size with similar appearance and taste.
Availability
The availability of a service. For example, a requirement for a software service to be up 99.99% of the time.
Usability
Requirements related to ease of use such as a can of coffee that is easy for everyone to open and reseal.
Customer Experience
Requirements that make a product or service more pleasing to customers. For example, the requirement that coffee smell good when you first open the can.
Look & Feel
The look and feel of products and services such as the aesthetics of a mobile device.
Environments
The quality of environments such as the interior design of a hotel lobby.
Customer Service
Customer service requirements such as the practice of greeting guests of a hotel by all staff in common areas such as hallways.
Performance
Performance requirements such as the responsiveness and speed of a user interface.
Maintainability
Requirements that things be easy to maintain and fix. For example, a mobile device with elements that can be swapped in and out by users to upgrade or replace things.
Materials & Ingredients
Specifications of material and ingredient quality such as the requirement that coffee be organic coffee of a particular appellation.
