Avoiding Microservice Spaghetti: When to Split, When to Stay
Article summary
Avoiding Microservice Spaghetti: When to Split, When to Stay February 18, 2016 Microservices promise autonomy, scalability, and faster delivery cycles-but only when designed with discipline. At one point this year, our team attempted to decompose a large service into a few smaller ones. The result? We traded tight coupling for noisy dependencies. What we-and many others-are learning is that splitting services too early or too eagerly leads to architecture chaos: what we’ve come to call microservice spaghetti.
Read Full Article on MediumPractical takeaway
The main idea behind Avoiding Microservice Spaghetti: When to Split, When to Stay is to help teams move from broad theory to clear, repeatable decision making. When teams apply this thinking, they reduce ambiguity and focus on improvements that deliver measurable momentum.
Example scenario
Imagine a team facing competing priorities. By applying the ideas in Avoiding Microservice Spaghetti: When to Split, When to Stay, they can map dependencies, identify risks and choose the next move that produces progress without destabilizing their system.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trying to redesign everything instead of taking small steps.
- Ignoring real constraints like incentives, ownership or legacy systems.
- Creating documents that do not lead to any change in code or decisions.
How to apply this in real work
Start by identifying where Avoiding Microservice Spaghetti: When to Split, When to Stay already shows up in your architecture or delivery flow. Then pick one area where clarity would reduce friction. Apply the idea, measure its effect and share the learning.
Signs you are doing it correctly
- Teams make decisions faster and with fewer disagreements.
- Architectural conversations become clearer and less abstract.
- Changes land safely with fewer surprises or rework cycles.