  Cloud-native architectures are often based on microservices and combine
different aspects that aim to leverage the capabilities of cloud platforms for
software development. Cloud-native architectural characteristics like patterns
and best practices aim to design, develop, deploy, and operate such systems
efficiently with minimal time and effort. However, architects and developers
are faced with the challenge of applying such characteristics in a targeted
manner to improve selected quality attributes. Hence, we aim to investigate
relationships, or more specifically impacts, between architectural
characteristics of cloud-native applications, and quality aspects. The
architectural characteristics in consideration are based on our recently
proposed quality model for cloud-native software architectures. To validate its
elements and revise this literature-based quality model, we conducted a
questionnaire-based survey among 42 software professionals. While the survey
results reinforce the quality model to a fair extent, they also indicate parts
requiring a revision. Thus, as an additional contribution, we present an
updated version of the quality model incorporating the survey results.
Practitioners will benefit from our work when designing and developing
cloud-native applications in a quality-oriented way. Researchers will moreover
profit from our specifically developed questionnaire-based survey tool, which
allows surveying complex structures like a hierarchical quality model.
