ITMS2014+

On the ITMS2014+ project we worked as an IT outsourcing partner, providing our full range of services — from architecture design through implementation and integration with other systems, to load testing, configuration management, and running the test infrastructure.

Architecture design

ITMS2014+ is a large-scale project. When designing the architecture, we took particular care to make the system performant, testable and — above all — maintainable, even as legislation changes or new requirements arise. The architecture was also designed with developer productivity in mind. The development environment needs no external dependencies such as remote databases or LDAP; all dependencies on third-party systems are mocked. This let us significantly cut development costs and boost productivity.

Development

ITMS2014+ is an enormous project. It comprises more than 1,800 user-interface screens, more than 1,400 database tables and views, and almost 2 million lines of source code. At its peak, more than 20 developers worked on it. At this scale, keeping the source code consistent and high-quality is essential, so we built a library of reusable user-interface components. Each was developed, designed and tested once, then reused by developers like Lego bricks — significantly increasing productivity and reducing defects. We also maintained quality through regular code reviews: only code that passed review made it into the shared development branch.

Integrations

One of the system’s core requirements was interoperability with other public-administration information systems. The emphasis was on the “once is enough” principle — the State should not repeatedly ask for data it has already been given. We therefore designed and built integrations with the accounting system of the Ministry of Finance and with the majority of information systems that handle records on individuals and legal entities: the Integrated Fund Accounting System, the Register of Individuals, the Register of Addresses, the Register of Legal Entities, the Central Public Administration Portal (slovensko.sk), the Electronic Marketplace, the Public Procurement Office, the Criminal Records register, the Electronic Cadastre Services, the Central Reference Data Administration, the Register of Bankrupts, the Register of Financial Statements, and others.

Load testing

On the ITMS2014+ project we left nothing to chance. Before every major release, we designed, ran and evaluated load tests to demonstrate the system’s performance characteristics. More than that — we designed ITMS2014+ and its architecture to exceed the agreed performance targets several times over.

Infrastructure operations

The ITMS2014+ system runs in the data center of the Slovak Ministry of Finance. Beyond that, it also relies on several staging environments where new versions are tested, bugs are reproduced, and so on. For ITMS2014+ we built and operated four staging environments and the complete infrastructure for automated builds and continuous integration.

Benefits for the client

ITMS2014+ set a high bar for other public-administration projects — not only through the quality of its delivery, but also because it is built entirely on open source technologies, which significantly reduced its cost. Despite the project’s enormous scale, we delivered quality, performant and maintainable software.