Version 1
: Received: 7 December 2021 / Approved: 8 December 2021 / Online: 8 December 2021 (14:25:02 CET)
Version 2
: Received: 16 December 2021 / Approved: 21 December 2021 / Online: 21 December 2021 (13:59:45 CET)
Version 3
: Received: 21 January 2022 / Approved: 24 January 2022 / Online: 24 January 2022 (11:43:32 CET)
Haeri, S.H.; Thompson, P.; Davies, N.; Van Roy, P.; Hammond, K.; Chapman, J. Mind Your Outcomes: The ΔQSD Paradigm for Quality-Centric Systems Development and Its Application to a Blockchain Case Study. Computers2022, 11, 45.
Haeri, S.H.; Thompson, P.; Davies, N.; Van Roy, P.; Hammond, K.; Chapman, J. Mind Your Outcomes: The ΔQSD Paradigm for Quality-Centric Systems Development and Its Application to a Blockchain Case Study. Computers 2022, 11, 45.
Haeri, S.H.; Thompson, P.; Davies, N.; Van Roy, P.; Hammond, K.; Chapman, J. Mind Your Outcomes: The ΔQSD Paradigm for Quality-Centric Systems Development and Its Application to a Blockchain Case Study. Computers2022, 11, 45.
Haeri, S.H.; Thompson, P.; Davies, N.; Van Roy, P.; Hammond, K.; Chapman, J. Mind Your Outcomes: The ΔQSD Paradigm for Quality-Centric Systems Development and Its Application to a Blockchain Case Study. Computers 2022, 11, 45.
Abstract
This paper directly addresses a critical issue that affects the development of many complex distributed software systems: how to establish quickly, cheaply and reliably whether they will deliver their intended performance before expending significant time, effort and money on detailed design and implementation. We describe ΔQSD, a novel metrics-based and quality-centric paradigm that uses formalised outcome diagrams to explore the performance consequences of design decisions, as a performance blueprint of the system. The ΔQSD paradigm is both effective and generic: it allows values from various sources to be combined in a rigorous way, so that approximate results can be obtained quickly and subsequently refined. ΔQSD has been successfully used by Predictable Network Solutions for consultancy on large-scale applications in a number of industries, including telecommunications, avionics, and space and defence, resulting in cumulative savings of $Bs. The paper outlines the ΔQSD paradigm, describes its formal underpinnings, and illustrates its use via a topical real-world example taken from the blockchain/cryptocurrency domain, where application of this approach enabled an advanced distributed proof-of-stake system to meet challenging throughput targets.
Computer Science and Mathematics, Computer Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
21 December 2021
Commenter:
Peter Thompson
Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
Author
Comment:
Updated the title at the request of the Computers editor. Changed the symbol for convolution to be consistent with general usage. Fixed typos: Table 1: Lomg -> LongPage 19: Is the headline "Alternative Refinements" formatted correctly?Page 22: In the list of the two steps, top of page, the Tau overlaps with the subscript Z and makes it hard to read.Also page 22: In the second sentence of the paragraph after the lists, there seems to be a missing word: "... the m (selected) neighbors of its are ..."Page 23: missing space, search for "thatZ"Page 25: Text says 90th centile, while plot shows 95th
Commenter: Peter Thompson
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
Table 1: Lomg -> LongPage 19: Is the headline "Alternative Refinements" formatted correctly?Page 22: In the list of the two steps, top of page, the Tau overlaps with the subscript Z and makes it hard to read.Also page 22: In the second sentence of the paragraph after the lists, there seems to be a missing word: "... the m (selected) neighbors of its are ..."Page 23: missing space, search for "thatZ"Page 25: Text says 90th centile, while plot shows 95th