Flexibility assessment for microservices based on quality attributes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32870/recibe.v15i1.492Keywords:
Microservices, Quality Atributes, Quality metrics, Development, Flexibility, Measurement, Quality Model, MetricsAbstract
In recent years, Microservices Architecture (MSA) has established itself as a key approach to distributed systems development, offering advantages such as flexibility, scalability, and agility. However, the literature shows a lack of a specific quality framework that allows for the evaluation of critical attributes in this context, particularly flexibility, since metrics inherited from other architectures are not always applicable or lack empirical validation. Given this limitation, we present a flexibility assessment framework organized into three main characteristics: adaptability, scalability, and portability, each with specific sub-attributes derived from ISO/IEC 25010, ISO/IEC 9126, ISO/IEC 2382, among other sources. Preliminary results, obtained from the analysis of fourteen microservices in Java associated with three repositories: Zull (47.37%), ACME Air Microservice (43.47%), and E-Commerce (33.7%), suggest that the adoption of microservices alone does not guarantee high flexibility, but rather depends on compliance with appropriate design practices. The scheme allowed us to identify recurring weaknesses in documentation, installability, and security mechanisms, confirming its usefulness as a tool for highlighting areas for improvement and guiding the design of more robust and adaptable systems.References
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