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DFDS uses development data to drive and monitor their migration from a monolithic codebase to a microservice architecture.

Challenge

DFDS operates large systems that transport thousands of people every day; the company is a critical part of the infrastructure between countries. This means that their systems have to evolve securely without disruptions to their mission of keeping people and goods safe. Progressing by small, incremental and frequent releases is the only choice.

In 2018, with the goal of maintaining a high-performing development team while restructuring, DFDS set out to get teams and microservices organized around their business capabilities. This was a core strategic initiative to have a software architecture that allows for autonomous teams, enabling easy scaling, faster time to market and smooth onboarding of new developers.

Shifting from a monolith into a microservice landscape is a complex task that requires monitoring.

CHALLENGE #1 Maintaining a high-performing development team while restructuring.
CHALLENGE #2 Ensuring systems evolve securely without disruptions to DFDS's mission of keeping people and goods safe.
CHALLENGE #3 Meet core strategic initiative to have a software architecture that allows for autonomous teams, easy scaling, faster time to market and smooth onboarding of new developers.

Key analysis used

Architectural Analysis DFDS used CodeScene’s architectural analyses to uncover unexpected team coupling, track implicit dependencies, and visualize the coordination needs between development teams. This made it possible to measure how organizational patterns influence code quality and how they are linked to the software architecture.
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Martin Bungaard, Chapter leader at DFDS HQ in Copenhagen, Denmark
“Are we making a distributed monolith or are we making decoupled microservices? It can be hard to see if just looking at the repositories. I find it clear to get information from CodeScene regarding this by using the change coupling”
Offboarding Analyses DFDS uses offboarding simulation to get information about what should be handed over and what the impact is of a developer leaving a project.
Automated Pull Request Reviews CodeScene is integrated into the development pipelines where it reports valuable metrics automatically. This lets the DFDS development teams utilize CodeScene to ensure high quality in new code via the automated pull request review.
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Martin Bungaard, Chapter leader at DFDS HQ in Copenhagen, Denmark
“It is very hard to change code already running in production compared to changing it before it is merged into master. CodeScene informs our developers about undesired parts of the new code – and the recommendations are mostly met.”
CodeScene Goals When they identify files with low Code Health, DFDS also use CodeScene’s Goals that allow them to make sure the relevant code is improving over time.
Hotspot Maps Hotspot Maps are used to identify problematic areas and candidates for pro-active refactorings.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
DFDS
DFDS, the Danish international shipping and logistics company is the busiest shipping company in Northern Europe. DFDS provides shipping, transport, port terminal services and logistics solutions to over 8,000 freight customers and more than 6 million passengers yearly. DFDS has 6,400 employees across 20 countries.

Learn More About DFDS And Their Strategy ->
CODESCENE INVOLVEMENT
CodeScene
CodeScene offered unique insights into DFDS’s system and helped them migrate from a monolithic codebase to decoupled microservices.

Key Insights were gathered from:

Architectural Analysis Automated Pull Requests Reviews Hotspot Maps

Key Results Achieved:

Architectural Transparency Reduced Development Cost Improvement in Code Health
FURTHER READING
Read more about DFDS’s journey from monolith to microservices:

Martin Oskarsson, Domain solution architect at DFDS, has written about Embracing Conway’s Law and Capabilities and Capabilities in Retrospect.

If you’re interested in learning more about CodeScene, please reach out to sales@codescene.com

Results

1
Reduced cost Development cost was reduced as a result of immediate quality feedback given to developers when creating pull requests.
2
Code Health improved from 3.0 to 9.7 Problematic areas that were identified in hotspot maps were proactively refactored and improved over time. With the help of insights and guidance from Automated Pull Request Reviews, newly merged code was of higher quality.
3
Architecture Transparency CodeScene's Change Coupling feature helped DFDS ensure they were making decoupled microservices and not just distributed monoliths.

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