Evolution and Anti-patterns Visualized: MicroProspect in Microservice Architecture

A microservice architecture has become the dominant direction for designing the building blocks of large-scale, distributed software systems. However, the dynamic and changing microservices within decentralized systems in contrast to available static tracing tools presents challenges for comprehending its impact on the overall architecture. Existing tracing tools uncover service call graphs but have limitations in visualizing historical changes; moreover, they are not meant to aid with architecture assessment where developers seek potential design anomalies. With the ever-growing system complexity, developers likely resort to focusing on specific subsets of the system, especially given the lack of tools to analyze the impacts of system evolution. To address these challenges, we introduce the MicroProspect tool that provides a high-level, holistic visual perspective on the system's service view, tracks its structural changes throughout system evolution, and detects and visualizes anti-patterns that could lead to architectural degradation.