The technical debt gamble: A case study on technical debt in a large-scale industrial microservice architecture

IF 4.1 2区计算机科学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Journal of Systems and Software Pub Date : 2025-07-16 DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2025.112547

Klara Borowa , Andrzej Ratkowski , Roberto Verdecchia

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Microservice architectures provide an intuitive promise of high maintainability and evolvability due to loose coupling. However, these quality attributes are notably vulnerable to technical debt (TD). Few studies address TD in microservice systems, particularly on a large scale. This research explores how TD manifests in a large-scale microservice-based industrial system. The research is based on a mixed-method case study of a project including over 100 microservices and serving over 15k locations. Results are collected via a quantitative method based static code analyzers combined with qualitative insights derived from a focus group discussion with the development team and a follow-up interview with the lead architect of the case study system. Results show that (1) simple static source code analysis can be an efficient and effective entry point for holistic TD discovery, (2) inadequate communication significantly contributes to TD, (3) misalignment between architectural and organizational structures can exacerbate TD accumulation, (4) microservices can rapidly cycle through TD accumulation and resolution, a phenomenon referred to as “microservice architecture technical debt gamble”. Finally, we identify a set of fitting strategies for TD management in microservice architectures.

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技术债务赌博：大规模工业微服务架构中技术债务的案例研究

由于松耦合，微服务架构提供了高可维护性和可扩展性的直观承诺。然而，这些质量属性特别容易受到技术债务（TD）的影响。很少有研究涉及微服务系统中的TD，特别是大规模的TD。本研究探讨了TD如何在基于微服务的大规模工业系统中体现。该研究基于一个项目的混合方法案例研究，该项目包括100多个微服务，服务超过1.5万个地点。结果是通过基于静态代码分析器的定量方法，结合从与开发团队的焦点小组讨论和与案例研究系统的首席架构师的后续访谈中获得的定性见解来收集的。结果表明：(1)简单的静态源代码分析可以成为整体TD发现的一个高效和有效的切入点；(2)不充分的沟通会显著导致TD；(3)架构和组织结构之间的不一致会加剧TD积累；(4)微服务可以快速地通过TD积累和解决循环，这种现象被称为“微服务架构技术债务赌博”。最后，我们确定了一套适合微服务架构中TD管理的策略。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Systems and Software 工程技术-计算机：理论方法

CiteScore

8.60

自引率

5.70%

发文量

193

审稿时长

16 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of software engineering and related hardware-software-systems issues. All articles should include a validation of the idea presented, e.g. through case studies, experiments, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: •Methods and tools for, and empirical studies on, software requirements, design, architecture, verification and validation, maintenance and evolution •Agile, model-driven, service-oriented, open source and global software development •Approaches for mobile, multiprocessing, real-time, distributed, cloud-based, dependable and virtualized systems •Human factors and management concerns of software development •Data management and big data issues of software systems •Metrics and evaluation, data mining of software development resources •Business and economic aspects of software development processes The journal welcomes state-of-the-art surveys and reports of practical experience for all of these topics.