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Structural complexity in service-oriented systems and its effects on system evolution and performance : a multi-cases study

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 80-81). / In a dynamic, uncertain environment where flexibility and responsiveness are key, companies are trying to adapt. In their quest for agility, they adopt new processes but also new architecture principles. Among them, Service-Oriented Architecture was meant to allow enterprise systems to become modular. Enhanced modularity would in turn lead to better agility. Yet the correlation between SOA adoption and improved agility performance remains to be seen. Breaking down systems into services is indeed not enough to achieve modularity. This research explores the effects of the structural complexity of composition of services on their performances and capacity to evolve. It does it by conducting a multi-case study on a set of web services responsible for complex tasks in a large and complex system. Drawing from the existing literature, structural complexity is broken down in two dimensions: components and interactions complexities. The effects of both dimensions are studied. While this thesis could not prove a direct effect of structural complexity on robustness and time to deliver, it shows strong evidence of an adverse effect of structural complexity on response time, coordination needs and ability to understand the system. This thesis also looks at the design decisions that can lead to complexity, proposes an enhancement of the structural complexity computation by looking at shared data and suggests conceptual integrity as a necessary complement to a pure structural analysis. The paper concludes with suggestions for potential future research. / by Martin Jouvenot. / S.M. in Engineering and Management / S.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122439
Date January 2019
CreatorsJouvenot, Martin.
ContributorsAlan D. MacCormack and Daniel Jackson., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program., System Design and Management Program., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program, System Design and Management Program
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format81 pages, application/pdf
RightsMIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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