Examples of Attribute Definitions Efficiency is a measure of how well the system utilizes processor capacity, disk space, memory, or communications bandwidth. Poor performance can simply be an irritant to the user who is waiting for a database query to display results, or it can represent serious risks to safety, as when a real-time process control system is overloaded. It's important to consider minimum hardware configurations when defining performance, capacity, and efficiency goals. The effort required to migrate a piece of software from one operating system to another is a measure of portability. The design approaches that make software portable are similar to those that make it reusable.
Portability is typically either immaterial to project success or critical to the project's outcome.
Portability goals should state the portions of the product that must be able to migrate to other environments and identify those target environments. Developers can then select design and coding approaches that will enhance the product's portability appropriately. Achieving the right balance of quality characteristics in the software won't happen by itself. Include discussions of quality attribute expectations in requirements elicitation, and document what you learn in the requirements specification. As a result, you're more likely to deliver a product that satisfies all the project stakeholders.