Blueprint for General Quality Attribute Model

Despite the over five decades long history of information and communication technology there are still many general level problems in the software products and a huge price is paid for that. It indicates that there is much left to learn about what makes up a good information system and how to make it. This paper tries to find out what are the general good properties of information systems and their constituents, how can they be categorized, and what has to be taken into account when defining them. The goal is to build an open and flexible inventory of commonly noticed quality attributes, and present a blueprint for a general quality attribute model. The elements of attribute model represent aspects relevant to the definition and control of general good properties during information system life cycle. This article reviews some selected documents dealing with the properties of a good information system. Against this background a tentative palette of quality attributes and an attribute model is built through conceptual analysis and synthesis. It is concluded, that while listing and strictly categorizing all possible qualityattributes is impossible, it is important to have in mind the whole, changing over time, palette, especially during the requirements workflow of information system development. And it is equally important to use a comprehensive conceptual attribute model throughout the system lifecycle for to support definition, implementation and measurement of valuable general system properties. Both tools can have a role in the struggle to overcome the persisting quality problems with software products and information