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Temporal Evolution of Architectural Complexity and Technical Debt in Microservices: An Exploratory Case Study
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0009-0004-5806-6624
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1350-7030
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1729-5154
2026 (English)In: Product-Focused Software Process Improvement: 26th International Conference, PROFES 2025, Salerno, Italy, December 1–3, 2025, Proceedings / [ed] Scanniello G., Romano S., Francese R., Lenarduzzi V., Vegas S., Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2026, p. 285-302Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Over the last decade, software organizations have increasingly adopted microservices to effectively deal with evolving software systems, frequent demands for new features, and changing technologies. However, microservices are not a silver bullet; their success depends on the specific context and needs of each organization. Therefore, tracking the evolution of architectural complexity indicators is crucial for effective architectural governance and decision-making. In this paper, we explore the relationship between architectural complexity indicators and their evolution, specifically declared dependencies, API endpoints, inter-service communications, size, and technical debt. We used the static source code analysis methods along with SonarQube to measure architectural complexity, collecting data on all indicators over the past two and a half years. Our findings indicate that architectural complexity consistently grows, even within microservices. Most importantly, these indicators co-evolve, making the overall architecture more complicated than expected. Additionally, all complexity indicators grow rapidly when services are small and still evolving. The insights gained from this study can assist organizations in effectively managing their microservices, highlighting when they might be most prone to architectural degradation. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2026. p. 285-302
Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, ISSN 0302-9743 ; 16361
Keywords [en]
Architectural Complexity, Complexity Evolution, Industrial Case Study, Microservices Architecture, Technical Debt, Architecture, Complexity indicators, Exploratory case studies, Microservice architecture, Software organization, Software-systems, Technical debts, Temporal evolution, Computer software
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-28987DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-12089-2_18Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105023329652ISBN: 9783032120885 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-28987DiVA, id: diva2:2021038
Conference
26th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2025, Salerno, Dec 1-3, 2025
Part of project
SERT- Software Engineering ReThought, Knowledge Foundation
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20180010Available from: 2025-12-12 Created: 2025-12-12 Last updated: 2025-12-12Bibliographically approved

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Paudel, BhuwanGonzalez-Huerta, JavierZabardast, Ehsan
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