A Modeling Method for Systematic Architecture Reconstruction of Microservice-Based Software Systems

Microservice Architecture (MSA) is an approach to architecting service-based software systems, which aims for decreasing service coupling to enable independent service development and deployment. Consequently, the adoption of MSA is expected to particularly benefit the scalability, maintainability, and reliability of monolithic systems. However, MSA adoption also increases architectural complexity in service design, implementation, and operation. As a result, Software Architecture Reconstruction (SAR) of microservice architectures is aggravated. This paper presents a modeling method that systematizes SAR of microservice architectures with the goal to facilitate its execution. The method yields reconstruction models for certain architecture viewpoints in MSA to enable efficient architecture analysis. We validate the method’s applicability by means of a case study architecture and the assessment of its risk in technical debt using derived reconstruction models.