DFDS | Customer case
DFDS successfully migrates from a monolith to a microservice architecture with CodeScene
CodeScene offered unique insights into DFDS’s system and helped them migrate from a monolithic codebase to decoupled microservices.
Challenges
Team Coordination
On-Boarding Developers Into Codebase
Unclear Priorities
Solutions
Architectural Analysis
Automated Code Reviews through Pull Request Integration
File-Level Hotspot Maps
CodeScene Goals
Off-boarding Simulator
Results
Improved Code Health
Architectural Transparency
Reduced Developments Costs
Project Overview:
DFDS
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, so they needed to shift from a monolith codebase to microservices.
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.
DFDS used CodeScene to analyze team connections, dependencies, and code quality, integrating it into their pipelines for automated metrics and pull request reviews. Offboarding simulations and CodeScene's Goals feature enabled DFDS to manage developer transitions, refactorings and track code improvement over time.
DFDS
Challenges
Enabling transition from monolith to miscroservice
DFDS made a strategic decision to shift from a monolith to a microservice landscape, with the goal of goal of maintaining a high-performing development team while restructuring. A complex task like this required detailed monitoring.
Monitoring Process
Ensuring systems evolve securely without disruptions to DFDS's mission of keeping people and goods safe.
Insights into Software Architecture
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.
“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.”
Martin Bungaard
- Chapter leader at DFDS HQ in Compenhagen, Denmark
Solutions
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.
Off-boarding Simulator
Automated Code Reviews via Pull Request Integration
File-Level Hotspots Maps and Goals
Effects of reduced unplanned work go beyond numbers
SmartCraft could reduce unplanned work and allocate more time to make improvements on the platform itself, introduce new technologies and experiment wirameworks. The effects of unplanned work being reduced go beyond numbers. It has had a very positive effect on the whole organization and especially on the mindset, motivation and the well being of SmartCraft's developers.
“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.”
Martin Bungaard
- Chapter leader at DFDS HQ in Copenhagen, Denmark
From uncovering unexpected team coupling to improving overall code quality
Not only did DFDS experience reduced development time due to immediate quality feedback and developers implementing code recommendations, but they also successfully transitioned from a monolithic architecture to microservices, thanks to CodeScene's profound insights into their software architecture.
Reduced Development Costs
Improved Code Health for Problematic Code
Deep Insights into their Software Architecture
Overall Code Health Improvement
Results
Reduced Development Costs
Development cost was reduced as a result of immediate quality feedback given to developers when creating pull requests.
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.
Deep Insights
CodeScene's Change Coupling feature helped DFDS ensure they were making decoupled microservices and not just distributed monoliths.
Try CodeScene for free
Are you still not convinced?
DFDS enabled their teams to become more efficient, reducing stress and frustration in the process. They could finally align teams and management around real business metrics showing why code quality really matters.