Evaluating the Risk of Changes in a Microservices Architecture

TL;DR

This paper proposes an algorithm to assess the risk of changes in microservices, aiming to improve system reliability and manage change-related risks effectively.

Contribution

It introduces a novel algorithm for quantifying the risk of individual microservice changes, enhancing deployment safety in microservices architectures.

Findings

Algorithm effectively estimates change risk

Improves deployment decision-making

Enhances system reliability management

Abstract

In a microservices-based system, reliability and availability are key components to guarantee the best-in-class experience for the consumers. One of the key advantages of microservices architecture is the ability to independently deploy services, providing maximum change flexibility. However, this introduces an extra complexity in managing the risk associated with every change: any mutation of a service might cause the whole system to fail. In this research, we would propose an algorithm to enable development teams to determine the risk associated with each change to any of the microservices in the system.