The Systems Measures Matrix (SV-7) identifes the quality requirements considered crucial to the successfull achievement of the mission goals assigned to systems. Very often these requirements are the deciding factors in acquisition and deployment decisions, and figure strongly in systems analyses and simulations done to support the acquisition decision processes and system design refinement.

SV-7 therefore specifies the quality requirements of systems, system hardware and software items, their interfaces (system data carried by the interface and the communications link details that implement the interface), and their functions. It specifies the current quality requirements and those expected or required at specified times in the future. The quality requirement categories are selected by the architect and end user community. As the complete set of quality requirements may not be known at the early stages of architecture definition, it is to be expected that this model will be updated throughout the system’s specification, design, development, testing, and maybe even its deployment and operations life-cycle phases.

SV-7 builds on other viewpoints by specifying quality requirements for systems and interfaces (defined in SV-1), system ports and communications (defined in SV-2), system functions (described in SV-4), system data exchange attributes (defined in SV-6), and data definitions (defined in DIV). If the future quality expectations are based on expected technology improvements, then the quality requirements and their time periods will be coordinated by using a Systems Technology Forecast (SV-9). If quality improvements are associated with an overall system evolution or migration plan, then the time periods in SV-7 will be coordinated with the milestones in a Systems Evolution Description (SV-8).