A4 Article in conference proceedings
Detecting Architecture Debt in Micro-Service Open-Source Projects (2023)

Capilla, R., Arcelli Fontana, F., Mikkonen, T., Bacchiega, P., & Salamanca, V. (2023). Detecting Architecture Debt in Micro-Service Open-Source Projects. In SEAA 2023 : 49th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (pp. 394-401). IEEE. Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications. https://doi.org/10.1109/seaa60479.2023.00066

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Capilla, Rafael; Arcelli Fontana, Francesca; Mikkonen, Tommi; Bacchiega, Paolo; Salamanca, Victor

Parent publication: SEAA 2023 : 49th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications

Conference:

Place and date of conference: Durres, Albania, 6.-8.9.2023

ISBN: 979-8-3503-4236-9

eISBN: 979-8-3503-4235-2

Journal or series: Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications

ISSN: 1089-6503

eISSN: 2376-9505

Publication year: 2023

Publication date: 06/09/2023

Pages range: 394-401

Number of pages in the book: 443

Publisher: IEEE

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/seaa60479.2023.00066

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/93329

Abstract

A micro-service architecture emphasizes the use of subsystems that are small enough for changing them on the fly. Such architecture supports the continuous evolution of the system because individual services can be updated at different times, making system maintenance flexible. Consequently, the architecturally important properties of micro-services are constituted by service APIs that must be well maintained, with experimental, static, and deprecated versions clearly indicated. Like any software, micro-services can induce technical debt (TD) problems in service API, architecture and source code, if their quality and maintainability have not been asserted beforehand. This paper explores the relationship between TD and micro-services. Specifically, we investigate the role of architectural smells (AS) in open-source micro-service projects, where the architectural debt is principally recognized through the detection of architectural smells in the projects. As tools for this investigation, we used Arcan and Designite. The empirical data for the work is constituted by 20 open-source projects where we analyze the relationship between architecture smells and micro-services.

Keywords: software industry; software engineering; software development

Free keywords: software architecture; architectural debt; micro-service; architecture smells; technical debt; open source repositories

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2023

JUFO rating: 1