research-article

A Feature Table approach to decomposing monolithic applications into microservices

Authors:

Tian ZhangAuthors Info & Claims

Internetware '20: Proceedings of the 12th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware

Pages 21 - 30

https://doi.org/10.1145/3457913.3457939

Published: 21 July 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Microservice architecture refers to the use of numerous small-scale and independently deployed services, instead of encapsulating all functions into one monolith. It has been a challenge in software engineering to decompose a monolithic system into smaller parts. In this paper, we propose the Feature Table approach, a structured approach to service decomposition based on the correlation between functional features and microservices: (1) we defined the concept of Feature Cards and 12 instances of such cards; (2) we formulated Decomposition Rules to decompose monolithic applications; (3) we designed the Feature Table Analysis Tool to provide semi-automatic analysis for identification of microservices; and (4) we formulated Mapping Rules to help developers implement microservice candidates. We performed a case study on Cargo Tracking System to validate our microservice-oriented decomposition approach. Cargo Tracking System is a typical case that has been decomposed by other related methods (dataflow-driven approach, Service Cutter, and API Analysis). Through comparison with the related methods in terms of specific coupling and cohesion metrics, the results show that the proposed Feature Table approach can deliver more reasonable microservice candidates, which are feasible in implementation with semi-automatic support.

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Cited By

Ding ZXu YFeng BJiang C(2024)Microservice Extraction Based on a Comprehensive Evaluation of Logical Independence and PerformanceIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.338019450:5(1244-1263)Online publication date: May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2024.3380194
Salles BCunha J(2023)Visually-Assisted Decomposition of Monoliths to Microservices2023 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VL-HCC57772.2023.00057(293-295)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/VL-HCC57772.2023.00057

Index Terms

A Feature Table approach to decomposing monolithic applications into microservices
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
2. Software and its engineering

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cover image ACM Other conferences

Internetware '20: Proceedings of the 12th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware

November 2020

264 pages

ISBN:9781450388191

DOI:10.1145/3457913

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

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Published: 21 July 2021

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Internetware'20

Internetware'20: 12th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware

November 1 - 3, 2020

Singapore, Singapore

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Cited By

Ding ZXu YFeng BJiang C(2024)Microservice Extraction Based on a Comprehensive Evaluation of Logical Independence and PerformanceIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.338019450:5(1244-1263)Online publication date: May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2024.3380194
Salles BCunha J(2023)Visually-Assisted Decomposition of Monoliths to Microservices2023 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VL-HCC57772.2023.00057(293-295)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/VL-HCC57772.2023.00057

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