Research trends and recommendations for future microservices research

Microservices are the most promising direction for developing heterogeneous distributed software systems capable of adapting to dynamic changes in business and technology. In addition to the development of new software systems, the migration from legacy monolithic systems to microservice architectures is also a prominent aspect of microservices use. These trends resulted in an increasing number of primary and secondary studies on microservices, stressing the need for systematization of research at a higher level. The objective of this study is to comprehensively analyze secondary studies in the field of microservices with objectives to inquire about publishing trends, research trends, domains of implementation, and future research directions. The study follows the guidelines for conducting a systematic literature review, which resulted in the findings derived from 44 secondary studies. The study findings are structured to address the proposed research objectives. Recommendations for further literature reviews relate to the improvement of quality assessment of selected studies to increase the validity of findings, a more detailed review of human and organizational factors through the microservices life cycle, the use of social science qualitative methods for more detailed analysis of selected studies, and inclusion of gray literature that will bring the real opinions and experiences of experts from industry.