Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
Scientific Programmer @ JADS | PhD Candidate @ USP | Co-founder & Coordinator @CodeLab
Exploring Micro Frontends
https://renatocf.xyz/amp25-slides
2025
Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME)
University of São Paulo (USP) – Brazil
Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS)
Technical University of Eindhoven (TUe) / Tilburg University (TiU) – The Netherlands
Paper
Slides
A Case Study Application in E-Commerce
Former Principal ML Engineer at Elo7 (BR)
4 years of industry experience designing, building, and operating ML products with multidisciplinary teams
B.Sc. and M.Sc. at University of São Paulo (BR)
Theoretical and practical experience with Machine Learning and Software Engineering
Scientific Programmer at JADS (NL)
Currently participating in the MARIT-D European project, using ML techniques for more secure seas
Ph.D. candidate at USP + JADS (BR + NL)
Research about SE4AI, in particular about MLOps and the software architecture of ML-Enabled Systems
Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
https://renatocf.xyz/contacts
Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
Luiz Fernando Corte Real
Ricardo Kojo
renatocf@ime.usp.br
sr.saude@alumni.usp.br
ricardo.kojo@alumni.usp.br
Thatiane de Oliveira Rosa
Alfredo Goldman
thatiane@ifto.edu.br
gold@ime.usp.br
Our paper provides insights into when
the adoption of micro frontends
may be worthwhile,
particularly in an industry context,
considering that research
in this area is still evolving
Research Questions
What are the motivations and challenges involved in adopting a micro frontend architecture in the studied company, which already uses microservices?
What are the perceived benefits and drawbacks reported by developers involved in the migration from a monolithic architecture to micro frontends?
RQ1
RQ2
Journey to
Micro Frontends
Back + Front
(Java)
2012
Front
(Node.js)
2016
Aquarelle
Marketplace
The Aquarelle project, built on Node.js, was introduced to implement a reactive chat feature capable of displaying dynamic backend data such as order status and user actions
Backend for Frontend (BFF) pattern handles (1) internal routing, (2) orchestrates data from microservices, and (3) forwards it to a template rendered by an open-source library developed by the Company
1
2
3
Other services
(Java, Python, ...)
2018
Front
(Node.js)
2016
Back + Front
(Java)
2012
API Gateway
(Go)
2021
Survey with
Developers
- Semi-open questionnaire
- Employees involved in frontend projects
- Frontend developers
- Technical Leads
- Engineering managers
- Software architects
Methodology
- 1 month duration
- 19 questions (15 open-ended + 4 multiple-choice)
- Full questionnaire available at Zenodo
8 participants
7 men / 1 women
5 participants
>10 years of experience
Many unknowns
Distributed testing expected to be harder
Positives
- New developers
Negatives
- Evolution depends on extracting services from the monolith
- Faster deployments
- Simpler implementation
- New technologies
-
More transparency in the
project understanding
-
Data conversion affects speed
(formerly done by the monolith)
-
Onboarding can be harder
(because of complexity)
Trade-offs of the new architecture
Research Questions
What are the motivations and challenges involved in adopting a micro frontend architecture in the studied company, which already uses microservices?
What are the perceived benefits and drawbacks reported by developers involved in the migration from a monolithic architecture to micro frontends?
RQ1
RQ2
While not the only possible solution,
micro frontends turned out to be
the most convenient
within that specific context
Exploring Micro Frontends
https://renatocf.xyz/amp25-slides
2025
Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME)
University of São Paulo (USP) – Brazil
Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS)
Technical University of Eindhoven (TUe) / Tilburg University (TiU) – The Netherlands
Paper
Slides
A Case Study Application in E-Commerce
Research Track - SummerSOC 2025
MLOps with Microservices:
A Case Study on the Maritime Domain
Doctoral Symposium - CAIN 2025
A Metrics-Oriented Architectural Model
to Characterize Complexity on
Machine Learning-Enabled Systems
[AMP - ECSA 2025] Exploring Micro Frontends: A Case Study Application in E-Commerce
By Renato Cordeiro Ferreira
[AMP - ECSA 2025] Exploring Micro Frontends: A Case Study Application in E-Commerce
This paper seeks to provide insights into when the adoption of micro frontends may be worthwhile, particularly in an industry context, considering that research in this area is still evolving. To achieve this, we conducted an investigation into the state of the art of micro frontends, based on both academic and gray literature. We then implemented this architectural style in a marketplace for handcrafted products, which already used microservices. Finally, we evaluated the implementation through a semi-open questionnaire with the developers. At the studied marketplace company, the need for architectural change arose due to the tight coupling between their main system (a Java monolith) and a dedicated frontend system. Additionally, there were deprecated technologies and poor developer experience. To address these issues, the micro frontends architecture was adopted, along with the API Gateway and Backend for Frontend patterns, and technologies such as Svelte and Fastify. Although the adoption of Micro Frontends was successful, it was not strictly necessary to meet the company’s needs. According to the analysis of the mixed questionnaire responses, other alternatives, such as a monolithic frontend, could have achieved comparable results. What made adopting micro frontends the most convenient choice in the company’s context was the monolith strangulation and microservices adoption
