Facing the Giant: a Grounded Theory Study of Decision-Making in Microservices Migrations
This research addresses the problem of holistic decision-making for practitioners involved in microservices migrations, though it is incremental as it builds on existing work by expanding focus beyond technical issues.
The study tackled the challenge of decision-making in microservices migrations by investigating 16 migration cases through interviews, resulting in the identification of 3 decision-making processes and 22 decision-points across technical, organizational, and stakeholder dimensions.
Background: Microservices migrations are challenging and expensive projects with many decisions that need to be made in a multitude of dimensions. Existing research tends to focus on technical issues and decisions (e.g., how to split services). Equally important organizational or business issues and their relations with technical aspects often remain out of scope or on a high level of abstraction. Aims: In this study, we aim to holistically chart the decision-making that happens on all dimensions of a migration project towards microservices (including, but not limited to, the technical dimension). Method: We investigate 16 different migration cases in a grounded theory interview study, with 19 participants that recently migrated towards microservices. This study strongly focuses on the human aspects of a migration, through stakeholders and their decisions. Results: We identify 3 decision-making processes consisting of 22decision-points and their alternative options. The decision-points are related to creating stakeholder engagement and assessing feasibility, technical implementation, and organizational restructuring. Conclusions: Our study provides an initial theory of decision-making in migrations to microservices. It also outfits practitioners with a roadmap of which decisions they should be prepared to make and at which point in the migration.