  [Context] Coupling is a widely discussed metric by software engineers while
developing complex software systems, often referred to as a crucial factor and
symptom of a poor or good design. Nevertheless, measuring the logical coupling
among microservices and analyzing the interactions between services is
non-trivial because it demands runtime information in the form of log files,
which are not always accessible. [Objective and Method] In this work, we
propose the design of a study aimed at empirically validating the Microservice
Logical Coupling (MLC) metric presented in our previous study. In particular,
we plan to empirically study Open Source Systems (OSS) built using a
microservice architecture. [Results] The result of this work aims at
corroborating the effectiveness and validity of the MLC metric. Thus, we will
gather empirical evidence and develop a methodology to analyze and support the
claims regarding the MLC metric. Furthermore, we establish its usefulness in
evaluating and understanding the logical coupling among microservices.
