What This Document Is
This document presents a review of existing research concerning the migration of legacy software systems to a microservice architecture. It specifically examines studies that have investigated the activities, challenges, and decisions made by developers during this complex process. The focus is on understanding how organizations approach modernization and the obstacles they encounter.
Why This Document Matters
This document is valuable for software architects, developers, and IT leaders involved in or planning a migration to microservices. It’s particularly relevant during the initial planning and assessment phases of a modernization project. Understanding the experiences of others—their successes and failures—can inform strategy and mitigate potential risks. It provides context for current practices and highlights areas where further research or improved tooling is needed.
Common Limitations or Challenges
This document is a *review* of other work; it does not provide a prescriptive guide for migrating to microservices. It doesn’t offer specific code examples, implementation details, or a step-by-step methodology. Users will still need to conduct their own thorough assessment of their legacy systems and define a tailored migration strategy.
What This Document Provides
The full document details findings from several studies, including those by Francesco et al., Taibi et al., Wang et al., Assungao et al., Benni et al., and Setyautami et al. It summarizes their key findings regarding: motivations for migration (maintainability, scalability), common challenges (coupling, service boundaries, data splitting), and observed practices (incremental migration, source code utilization). It also highlights gaps in existing research and positions the author’s work as contributing to a more in-depth understanding of specialist decision-making during the migration process. This preview does *not* include the full details of each study’s methodology, the specific questionnaire items used, or the complete analysis of service dependencies.
