Open Tracing Tools: Overview and Critical Comparison

17 Pages Posted: 29 Jul 2022

See all articles by Andrea Janes

Andrea Janes

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Xiaozhou Li

Tampere University

Valentina Lenarduzzi

University of Oulu

Abstract

Background. Coping with the rapid growing complexity in contemporary software architecture, tracing has become an increasingly critical practice and been adopted widely by software engineers. By adopting tracing tools, practitioners are able to monitor, debug, and optimize distributed software architectures easily. However, with excessive number of valid candidates, researchers and practitioners have a hard time finding and selecting the suitable tracing tools by systematically considering their features and advantages. Objective. To such a purpose, this paper aims to provide an overview of the popular tracing tools on the market via a critical comparison. Method. Herein, we first identified 11 tools in an objective, systematic, and reproducible manner adopting the Systematic Multivocal Literature Review protocol. Then, we characterized each tool looking at the 1) measured features, 2) popularity both in peer-reviewed literature and online media, 3) benefits and issues. Results. This paper presents a systematic comparison amongst the selected tracing tools in terms of their features, popularity, benefits and issues.  Conclusion. Such a result mainly shows that each tracing tool provides a unique combination of features with also different pros and cons. The contribution of this paper is to provide the practitioners better understanding of the tracing tools facilitating their adoption.

Suggested Citation

Janes, Andrea and Li, Xiaozhou and Lenarduzzi, Valentina, Open Tracing Tools: Overview and Critical Comparison. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4175937 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4175937

Andrea Janes

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano ( email )

Sernesiplatz 1
Bozen-Bolzano, 39100
Italy

Xiaozhou Li

Tampere University ( email )

Tampere, FIN-33101
Finland

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