Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table

A Middleware Framework for Constraint-Based Deployment and Autonomic Management of Distributed Applications

We propose a middleware framework for deployment and subsequent autonomic management of component-based distributed applications. An initial deployment goal is specified using a declarative constraint language, expressing constraints over aspects such as component-host mappings and component interconnection topology. A constraint solver is used to find a configuration that satisfies the goal, and the configuration is deployed automatically. The deployed application is instrumented to allow subsequent autonomic management. If, during execution, the manager detects that the original goal is no longer being met, the satisfy/deploy process can be repeated automatically in order to generate a revised deployment that does meet the goal.Comment: Submitted to Middleware 0

A formal verification framework and associated tools for enterprise modeling : application to UEML

The aim of this paper is to propose and apply a verification and validation approach to Enterprise Modeling that enables the user to improve the relevance and correctness, the suitability and coherence of a model by using properties specification and formal proof of properties

Simulating enterprise architecture models

Business and ICT strategic alignment remains an ongoing challenge facing organizations as they react to changing requirements by adapting or introducing new technologies to existing infrastructure. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has increasingly become relevant to these demands and as a consequence numerous methods and frameworks for pursuing EA have emerged. However these approaches remain bloated, time-consuming and lacking in precision. This paper proposes a lightweight method for EA (LEAP) and introduces a language for representing EA components that lends itself to modelling as-is and to-be EA with a concrete aim to providing a simulation environment that delivers an unambiguous description of the required changes. The LEAP method and the language are illustrated with a detailed case study of business change currently being addressed by UK higher education institutions

A multi-agent system to support location based group decision making in mobile teams

This paper describes an agent-based approach for developing a location-based asynchronous group decision-support system for mobile teams. The approach maximises the use of reusable service components (GSCmas — generic service component for multi-agent systems) as the main interaction mechanism between agents to allow flexible support of a new group-decision process. The paper describes the architecture of a GSCmas and provides details of how the GSCmas is integrated within a decision support system. Finally a system (mPower) based on the proposed approach is introduced and applied to a location-based group decision problem

Towards the ontology-based consolidation of production-centric standards

Production-­centric international standards are intended to serve as an important route towards information sharing across manufacturing decision support systems. As a consequence of textual-­based definitions of concepts acknowledged within these standards, their inability to fully interoperate becomes an issue especially since a multitude of standards are required to cover the needs of extensive domains such as manufacturing industries. To help reinforce the current understanding to support the consolidation of production-­centric standards for improved information sharing, this article explores the specification of well-defined core concepts which can be used as a basis for capturing tailored semantic definitions. The potentials of two heavyweight ontological approaches, notably Common Logic (CL) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) as candidates for the task, are also exposed. An important finding regarding these two methods is that while an OWL-­based approach shows capabilities towards applications which may require flexible hierarchies of concepts, a CL-­based method represents a favoured contender for scoped and facts-­driven manufacturing applications

Towards a Light-weight Enterprise Architecture Approach for Building Transformational Preparedness

The need for business agility in order to cope with the increasing rate of changes brought by disruptive technologies and paradigms is more stringent than ever; unfortunately however, it also encounters many hurdles. To start with, typical strategic transformation planning featuring successive specify-design-implement phases is no longer suitable, as the resulting sequentially staged processes can no longer catch up with the changes in internal structure and external environment. The blurring of top organisational role boundaries in regards to the allocation of management and architecture skillsets is another issue significantly affecting agility. Finally, the lack of structure and integration of business transformation and architecting methodologies offered by various disciplines and vendors affects the ability to use them for specific endeavours. This paper elaborates on and illustrates the above-mentioned problems through a case study and proposes a way to solve them in a holistic, lifecycle-aware manner using a ‘lightweight’ architectural framework approach

Management and architecture click: The FAD(E)E Framework.

Enterprises are living things. They constantly need to be (re-)architected in order to achieve the necessary agility, alignment and integration. This paper gives a high-level overview of how companies can go about doing 'enterprise architecture' in the context of both the classic (isolated) enterprise and the Extended Enterprise. By discussing the goals that are pursued in an enterprise architecture effort we reveal some basic requirements that can be put on the process of architecting the enterprise. The relationship between managing and architecting the enterprise is discussed and clarified in the FAD(E)E, the Framework for the Architectural Development of the (Extended) Enterprise.Management; Architecture; Framework;