industryviewofintegration

Summary: This page defines integration at the highest level, with drill downs on each category.

As you know there are many books and articles available on integration. While each author approaches the problem from a different perspective (which is great) they all use a different terminology. This makes it very difficult to get a holistic picture of just what exactly integration is, what are your options and what you need, to do integration. This is our attempt to normalize the taxonomy and come up with that overall picture. To do some level setting, here is a fitting definition of integration:

"...a strategic approach to binding many information systems together, at both the service and information levels, supporting their ability to exchange information and leverage processes in real time." {1}

To start decomposing integration and discover the capabilities we need, let me put a stake in the ground and define integration as the combination of the following approaches:

http://image18.webshots.com/19/7/43/23/215874323bKuDRL_ph.jpg

At the core, there are three different types of integration:
*UserExperienceIntegration (UEI)
*BusinessProcessIntegration (BPI)
*InformationIntegration (InI)

User Experience Integration provides users with a unified view of multiple systems, both internal and external. Business Process Integration is about defining business processes that span multiple sytems and organizations, and define the sequence of events and flow of information between these systems. As you might have guessed, Information Integration is all about integration at the data layer. In any given integration project you would mix and match these approaches as appropriate. You might use all of them or just one. As we continue to decompose this space, you'll see that each of these categories are made up of many capabilities. Again, those capabilities are meant to be a superset of what you might want to use in any given scenario. For example, if you are just looking for a quick win, or new to integration, you could start with UEI and build a simple portal that pulls information together from multiple backend systems, but do nothing in the other two categories.

In addition to the above three, there are two other categories:
*SystemConnectivity
*InfrastructureIntegration

System Connectivity incorporates the means of hooking various pieces of technologies together. This connectivity is relevant and necessary for all three types of integration and as such, it is represented as a horizontal capability, supporting all three fundmental types.

Infrastructure integration is one of those “other” buckets. To make integration happen we need a lot of miscellaneous bits that don’t really fit into any of the other categories, but nevertheless essential, things like authentication and authorization. These capabilities cut across all fundamental types and are necessary for connectivity as well.

One other thing, I am using a product called MindManager to organize my thoughts and get a great one picture overview of the whole thing. The map it creates is huge, but you have everything in one big wall chart. I am including an image here. Please note that the layout is different from the picture above, - that is because MindManager was not meant to be a drawing tool. Terminology could also vary, as the picture migh not be in synch with the content all the times.

http://image22.webshots.com/23/6/97/30/215869730hMcCip_fs.jpg

industryviewofintegration

See also