In the context of Service-Oriented Architecture, early work from [O'Brien et al, 2005] discusses the importance of quality attributes -

Software architecture is the bridge between mission/business goals and a software-intensive system. Quality attribute requirements drive software architecture design. Choosing and designing an architecture for such systems that satisfies the functional as well as the nonfunctional or quality attribute requirements are vital to the success of those systems. An SOA is an architecture for a system that is built using a set of services. It is import to examine how an SOA supports quality attributes.

Materials
[O'Brien et al, 2005] Quality Attributes in Service-Oriented Architectures, O'Brien, Bass, Merson, 2005.