DevConf.cz 2021

Since the modern trend of application development moves towards the cloud, microservices, and containers, the conventional code-centric analysis tools are becoming obsolete. Thus, we need to realign analysis tools to address the specifics of modern distributed web applications. We introduce Prophet for a holistic analysis of enterprise microservice apps, which utilizes code analysis. Each microservice module is analyzed separately, but the outcomes are combined in the context of other system modules. In particular, we construct a context map (canonical model) from microservice bounded contexts and extract module interaction to understand the overall system detail and resolve the systems' inner dependencies. With this module "fusion" we can treat the system holistically to perform various analytical tasks. Our current experimentation shows confidence with Java and Python projects, utilizing both source code or bytecode, which opens the path for integration into any phase of software development life-cycle or even to deployment management systems Kubernetes to serve DevOps and SysOps.

With the infrastructure we have developed so far, we could respond with automation to recently identified microservice bad smells (bad design practice) and recognize 11 different patterns apparent in the distributed settings. Besides, we can automate Software Architecture Reconstruction (SAR), which is often attempted manually via reverse engineering process. SAR derives a representation of software architecture from artifacts like documentation or source code. The ability to see the system as a whole is essential since SAR is key to architecture verification, conformance checking, and trade-off analysis. Additionally, we manage to assess inconsistencies and errors in Role-based Access Control (RBAC) applied to microservice apps through Java EE Security API Specification (JSR 375) or Spring Security. Specifically in this field, Gartner reposts critical infrastructural gaps and challenges. With Prophet, we face new challenges that emerged in current design trends.