CCE Theses and Dissertations
Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (CISD)
Department
College of Computing and Engineering
Advisor
Francisco Mitropoulos
Committee Member
Greg Simco
Committee Member
Sumitra Mukherjee
Keywords
Architectural Technical Debt, Microservices, Modular Architecture, Monolith, Object Oriented, Technical Debt
Abstract
Architectural Technical Debt (ATD), a subset of Technical Debt (TD), arises when outdated architectural decisions present significant challenges to the maintenance and evolution of legacy object-oriented monolithic systems. These systems tend to have tightly coupled components and rigid dependencies, making it difficult to scale, adapt, and modernize. This dissertation investigated strategies for managing ATD during the transition from monolithic architectures to modular systems. By identifying the root causes of ATD in a legacy objectoriented system and evaluating various decomposition strategies, this research proposed a framework to guide practitioners in reducing ATD and improving a system’s modularity. Using quantitative metrics, the study evaluated the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing ATD and enhancing maintainability. The findings are intended to bridge the gap between theoretical insights and actionable solutions, contributing to both academic literature and industry practice. Through a structured approach leveraging a case study of an open-source system, this work moved to provide a roadmap for managing ATD and facilitating a smoother transition from a legacy system to a modern scalable architecture.
The results demonstrated the effectiveness of a scoring system that integrated multiple structural and quality metrics to assess ATD severity and recommended a targeted migration strategy. By mapping values to specific variables, the scoring system enabled a data-driven comparison of multiple migration options. This approach allows practitioners to not only detect ATD with precision but also make informed architectural decisions based on empirical tradeoffs. The scoring framework proved to be a reliable and replicable method for selecting optimal migration paths, thus offering a practical solution for migrating legacy systems that are constrained by ATD.
NSUWorks Citation
Lionel Standridge. 2025. Architectural Technical Debt Migrating Object Oriented Systems to Modular Architectures. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, College of Computing and Engineering. (1213)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/1213.