On the Usefulness of Automatically Generated Microservice Architectures
The modernization of monolithic legacy systems with microservices has been a trend in recent years. As part of this modernization, identifying microservice candidates starting from legacy code is challenging, as maintainers may consider many criteria simultaneously. Multi-objective search-based approaches represent a promising state-of-the-art solution to support this decision-making process. However, the rationale to adopt each microservice candidate automatically identified by these approaches is poorly investigated in industrial cases. Furthermore, studies with these approaches have not carefully investigated how maintainers reason and make decisions when designing microservice architectures from legacy systems. To address this gap, we conducted an on-site case study with maintainers of an industrial legacy system to investigate the usefulness of automatically generated microservice architectures. We analyze design decisions pointed out by the maintainers when reasoning about microservice candidates using several criteria at the same time. Our study is the first to assess a search-based approach involving actual maintainers conceiving microservice architectures in an industrial setting. Therefore, firstly, we considered individual evaluation of microservice candidates to understand the rationale for identifying a service. Secondly, we conducted a focus group study with maintainers with the goal of investigating design decisions at an architectural level. The results show that: (i) the automated approach is able to identify useful microservices; (ii) the criteria observed by previous studies are, in fact, considered by maintainers; and (iii) the maintainer profiles, i.e., the preferred granularity for microservice, highly affect design decisions. Finally, we observed the maintainers needed little effort in adjusting the automatically identified microservices to make them adoptable. In addition to indicating a promising potential of search-based approaches to generate microservice architectures, our findings highlight the need for: (i) interactive and/or customizable approaches that enable maintainers to include their preferences during the search process, and (ii) flexible or automated selection of criteria that fits the scenario in which the modernization is taking place.
Wed 17 JulDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
14:00 - 15:30 | Processes, Requirements, and ArchitectureIndustry Papers / Journal First / Research Papers / Demonstrations at Acerola Chair(s): Annibale Panichella Delft University of Technology | ||
14:00 18mTalk | On the Usefulness of Automatically Generated Microservice Architectures Journal First Luiz Carvalho Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thelma Elita Colanzi State University of Maringa, Brazil, Wesley Assunção North Carolina State University, Alessandro Garcia Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Juliana Alves Pereira Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Marcos Kalinowski Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rafael de Mello Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Maria Julia de Lima Tecgraf Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Carlos Lucena Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | ||
14:18 18mTalk | An LGPD Compliance Inspection Checklist to Assess IoT Solutions Industry Papers Ivonildo Pereira Gomes Neto Federal University of Pernambuco, João Mendes Federal University of Maranhão, Waldemar Pires Ferreira Neto Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, Luis Jorge Enrique Rivero Cabrejos Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil, Davi Viana Federal University of Maranhão, Sérgio Soares Universidade Federal de Pernambuco | ||
14:36 18mTalk | Automated Smell Detection and Recommendation in Natural Language Requirements Journal First Alvaro Veizaga University of Luxembourg, Seung Yeob Shin University of Luxembourg, Lionel Briand University of Ottawa, Canada; Lero centre, University of Limerick, Ireland | ||
14:54 9mTalk | Supporting Early Architectural Decision-Making Through Tradeoff Analysis: A Study with Volvo Cars Industry Papers Karl Öqvist Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Jacob Messinger Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Rebekka Wohlrab Chalmers University of Technology | ||
15:03 9mTalk | MicroKarta: Visualising Microservice Architectures Demonstrations Oscar Manglaras University of Adelaide, Alex Farkas University of Adelaide, Peter Fule Swordfish Computing, Christoph Treude Singapore Management University, Markus Wagner Monash University, Australia | ||
15:12 18mTalk | Understanding Developers' Discussions and Perceptions on Non-Functional Requirements: The Case of the Spring Ecosystem Research Papers Anderson Oliveira Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), João Lucas Correia Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Wesley Assunção North Carolina State University, Juliana Alves Pereira Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rafael de Mello Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Daniel Coutinho Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Caio Barbosa Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Paulo Vítor C. F. Libório Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Alessandro Garcia Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) DOI Pre-print | ||