Micro Frontends are Gaining Popularity – Here’s Why

The app landscape is getting increasingly competitive, compelling teams to adopt newer, more effective development frameworks and methodologies to create stunning pieces of art. The app landscape is getting increasingly competitive, compelling teams to adopt newer, more effective development frameworks and methodologies to create stunning pieces of art.

Micro Frontends is the latest craze to sweep the development landscape. They empower teams to consider websites or apps as a composition of different features – owned, developed, managed, and maintained by different independent teams. By extending the concept of microservices to the realm of frontend, this newfangled craze is helping teams build feature-rich, powerful applications that are not only easy to build but also to maintain.

The need for micro frontends

Anurag Sinha, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Wissen Technology (Wissen.com)

The pressure on software development teams to build modern, cutting-edge websites and apps is constantly growing. Although teams have long been burdened with this pressure, the era in which we live today is completely evolved. With new products, new technologies, and new expectations constantly emerging, concepts like micro frontends allow development teams to -

• Move away from rigid, monolithic architectures and bring in elevated levels of flexibility and agility into the development process

• Reduce the complexity in existing systems while building applications with greater modularity

• Introduce features and changes more easily (and frequently) and accelerate the development process, and thus time-to-market

• Independently build and deliver frontend components in small iterations – instead of building complex applications in one go

• More easily introduce, manage, and maintain existing and new features and functionality – without affecting other parts of code

The reasons for their popularity

Developing robust, high-quality frontends is hard. But not when you embrace a concept like micro frontends that allow different people to work on different aspects of the product simultaneously. Listed below are some benefits that micro frontends deliver by breaking monolithic architecture into many smaller, more manageable pieces and increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of teams working on frontend code:

1. Allow for an iterative approach to software development: Organizations, over the years, have realized that the only way they can constantly deliver top-notch, high-quality software is by embracing an iterative approach to software development. Serving as a natural evolution of microservices-based architecture, micro frontends help decrease the complexity of monoliths, paving the way for greater flexibility and agility in introducing changes and updates. Since different teams can seamlessly update backend functionalities without affecting other parts of the code, micro frontends extend the ability to build different components individually, that are easier to create, update, and implement.

2. Make codebases simpler and more manageable: Another reason why micro frontends are gaining immense popularity is that they make codebases simpler and easier to manage. The decoupled nature of the underlying architecture means developers can easily navigate through code and identify issues and defects – while being less prone to making mistakes due to complexity. Since developers can work with code with less strain, they are able to contribute better to the overall quality of the product under development.

3. Empower teams to work at their own pace: Unlike traditional software development where teams were forced to meet strict deadlines and were limited by rigid hierarchies, micro frontends allow different teams to work at their own pace. Not only can they iterate independently, but they can also execute code when they want – without being held up by unnecessary organizational barriers. In addition, micro frontends allow every aspect of a process to be continually improved, as and when deemed necessary, paving the way for continuous improvement.

4. Promote code reusability: Micro frontends also promote code reusability, which means teams can build multiple features or applications using the same codebase. By extracting common elements from existing code, they can use the same functionality across applications, instead of building them from scratch – thus saving time and effort while creating new workflows. Such reusability not only helps save considerable effort and money; it also enables teams to bring products to market faster.

5. Enable continuous transformation of the user experience: Since micro frontends allow teams to quickly and safely update and upgrade features, they aid in continuously transforming the user experience, ensuring that it aligns with current trends and expectations. Since cross-functional teams can autonomously work to deliver both frontend and backend capabilities, micro frontends also help break down departmental silos, favoring better communication between backend and frontend developers. By democratizing backend development, teams can extend a service-oriented culture to every aspect of the development lifecycle and overcome the bottlenecks brought about by a highly centralized UX.

Development teams across the world are constantly seeking new approaches and methodologies to build scalable, robust, integrated, and highly secure applications. Micro frontends, through their numerous microservices-like features and capabilities, enable teams to drive continuous development and ensure on-time and high-quality software delivery. By taking an iterative approach to software development, they allow teams to work at their own pace, make codebases simpler to manage, promote code reusability, and transform the user experience. Are you ready to embrace micro frontends?

Author: Anurag Sinha, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Wissen Technology (Wissen.com)