The dqualizer project is an example of the promotion of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The sponsor of the initiative called "KMU-innovativ" is the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). With the "KMU-innovativ" initiative, the BMBF has set up a "fast lane" for small and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs can submit their project ideas in the field of information and communication technologies at any time and receive preferential support through simplified funding and accelerated approval procedures. The aim is to cushion innovation risks for SMEs and to support SMEs with top performance in the high-tech sector.

How does the dqualizer project intend to be a driver of innovation for SMEs?

In order to outline the objective of dqualizer, the project specification document (german: Vorhabenskurzbeschreibung) ^[1] is quoted and commented below:

"The runtime quality of a given application system - e.g. in terms of performance, reliability and resilience - plays a critical role on the usage and usability of said application. Runtime quality therefore has a direct impact on a company’s business success. This applies to companies in a wide variety of technical domains. To put it more poetic, one could state that running software is the lifeblood of a running business.

Given this premise it becomes critical to analyse the runtime quality of a given application, e.g. with regards to resiliency. To analyse aspects of runtime quality it is vital to continuously monitor, evaluate and, if necessary, improve runtime quality through analysis measures. In recent years, such suitable analysis measures like load tests or monitoring have become widespread in the field of IT.

At the same time, sophisticated commercial and open source tools have been developed. However, these measures are all based on a technical level or perspective. They are not being interpreted at a functional domain level or perspective. Also at the same time, software architecture and software development approaches such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD) are becoming increasingly widespread. However these do not essentially consider the issues of runtime quality, despite the topics criticality.

So practicioners in the field lack access to

a) sophisticated commercial and / or open source tools to analyze runtime quality of an application system without a strictly technical perspective

b) software architecture and software development approaches that essentially consider the issues of runtime quality.

The dqualizer research project aims to close this gap between the domain expertise of the application systems and the (technical) measures and findings of quality assurance. The focus is on a domain-centered solution approach."

How does dqualizer intend to assist practitioners in SMEs?

To this end, possibilities for modeling and monitoring runtime quality issues are to be integrated into DDD-based techniques. From a technical perspective, dqualizer can be used to automatically generate and interpret meaningful load and resilience tests and establish links to technical monitoring.

The innovative concepts developed are to be implemented in an open source tool and made available and accessible in connection with existing tools. The practical applicability of the dqualizer approach will be evaluated in real case studies. Those will take place in the complex technical domains of insurance and payroll/tax accounting as well as the corresponding technical environments. To this end, multiple case studies are provided by the two associated application partners, DATEV eG and VHV Solutions GmbH.

As a result, employees with responsibilities in the specialist departments and employees with management responsibilities can be involved in the quality management of a company’s software. This can take place throughout the entire software life cycle, from requirements gathering to the operation and maintenance of the running software. Such a broad applicability means a higher level of software quality in terms of non-functional properties, which is particularly beneficial for business-critical applications in Germany.

The rest of this chapter is divided into three sections.

Firstly, a brief description of the requirements in section 1.1 [Requirements overview]. Secondly a list of the most relevant quality goals for the architecture in 1.2 [Quality goals], the achievement of which is critical for the most important stakeholders. Thirdly and finally, the section 1.3 [Stakeholders] provides an overview of the most important stakeholders and their expectations regarding the architecture.