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Cited by 5Software System Performance and ReliabilitySoftware Testing and Debugging TechniquesSoftware Engineering Techniques and Practices

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 28 of the 28 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

A Taxonomy of Integration-Relevant Faults for Microservice Testing

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Gregor, Lena, Hentschel, Anja, Kastner, Leon, Pretschner, Alexander·2025·2025 IEEE Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST)
DOI 10.1109/icst62969.2025.10989000
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Abstract

Microservices have emerged as a popular architectural paradigm, offering a flexible and scalable approach to software development. However, their distributed nature and diverse technology stacks introduce inherent complexities, surpassing those of monolithic systems. The integration of microservices presents numerous challenges, from communication failures to compatibility issues, compromising system reliability. Understanding faults in these distributed components is crucial for preventing defects, devising test strategies, and implementing robustness testing. Despite the significance of these software systems, existing taxonomies are limited, as they primarily focus on non-functional attributes or lack empirical validation. To address these gaps, this paper proposes an extensive taxonomy of the most common integration-relevant faults observed in large-scale microservice systems in industry. Leveraging insights from a systematic literature review and ten semi-structured interviews with industry experts, we identify common integration-related faults encountered in real-world microservice projects. Our final taxonomy was validated through a survey with an additional set of 16 practitioners, confirming that almost all fault categories (21/23) were experienced by at least 50% of the survey participants.

Overview

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Crossref · 10.1109/icst62969.2025.10989000

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Show all 28 references

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Lewis, 2014, Microservices
  2. Newman, 2016, What are microservices?
  3. Software, 2021, Do you utilize microservices within your organization?
  4. 2021, Applications using microservices worldwide in 2021
  5. Beizer, 1984, Software system testing and quality assurance
  6. Gregor, 2023, The Fault in Our Services: Investigating Integration-Relevant Faults in Microservices
  7. Boyatzis, 1998, Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development

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Metadata

Authors
Gregor, L., Hentschel, A., Kastner, L., & Pretschner, A.
Affiliations
  • Technical University of Munich (DE)
  • Siemens (Germany) (DE)
ORCID
Venue
2025 IEEE Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST)
Publisher
IEEE
Published
2025-03-31
Pages
138-149
DOI
10.1109/icst62969.2025.10989000
OpenAlex
W4410536988
Semantic Scholar
8b0bb5f7697ed162c66ac07f354e9c094e8591d4
Cited by
5
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 2
FWCI
3.89
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST) (publishedVersion)
  • mediaTUM (Technical University of Munich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Software System Performance and Reliability
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
Keywords
microservices, fault classification, distributed systems, robustness testing, communication breakdown, compatibility issues, software reliability

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