INTE-1-M1

Integration of software refers to techniques for combining existing • Technology change affects all • Technology change affects all
software components to form a complete system. layers; legacy does not go away layers; legacy does not go away
so easily. so easily.
Software integration includes at least one existing software system,
developed in the past with no plan for its symmetric integration with • Within an enterprise, each • Updating and integrating of
another component in the future. Integrative programming deals with an department may have its own IT applications is possible whenever
integration approaches and techniques that connect different infrastructure, systems and required. New applications can be
components of IT infrastructure- people, applications, platforms and databases which are maintained created by integrating real time
databases to enable a secure, intra and inter application collaboration. independently. Integrating them data from different parts of the
may bring additional value to the enterprise
Integrative solutions enable an organization to integrate business company.
processes internally and externally with business partners to create
dynamic environments that supports current and evolving business • The architecture of the • Integration assists in formation
requirements, thereby creating a global organization. organization information system of Zero Latency organization -
depends on constraints related to when all functions within the
Application integration assists in unlimited sharing of data and business the technology but also to the organization work with the same
processes among any connected applications or data sources in without organization. up-to-date information, latency
making major changes to the applications or data structures. between applications is
eliminated/ reduced.
Hence, integration is the process of connecting multiple, independently
developed applications using incompatible technologies into a single • Within an enterprise, each department may have its own IT
organization wide system with information flowing seamlessly among the infrastructure, systems and databases which are maintained
integrated systems or components. independently. Integrating them may bring additional value to the
company.
Most of the applications that run in organizations’ hardly live in isolation. Zero Latency Organization – best described as an organization whose
Whether the registrar application must interface with the finance temporality of activity monitoring, via the implementation of its business
application, the human resource management application must connect process in order to respond as fast as possible to changes in context.
to each other, it seems like any application can be made better by
integrating it with other applications. Integration models Integration model defines how applications will be
integrated by defining the nature of and mechanisms for integration.
Integration of multiple, independently developed, managed and Some of the methods used for application integration are discussed in the
maintained applications components that may normally use incompatible following section.
technologies and heterogeneous platforms” enables transmission of
information between applications, automates flow of data between Presentation integration model allows the integration of new software
applications that make up the business process flow. through the existing presentations of the legacy software. This is typically
used to create a new user interface but may be used to integrate with
Integration is the process of combining separate applications into other applications.
cooperating collections of application.
Data integration model allows the integration of software through access
Overview of Inter-System Communication to the data that is created, managed and stored by the software typically
for the purposes of reusing or synchronizing data across applications.
Inter-system communication is the communication between a set of
heterogeneous systems that are integrated together. These integrated Functional integration model allows the integration of software for the
systems which put together many heterogeneous set of subsystems and purpose of invoking existing functionality from other new or existing
the produced objects are extremely different, yet should contribute to the applications. The integration is done through interfaces to the software.
same process.
Fundamental Challenges of Integration
Software integration includes one or more of the following.
Network is unreliable Integration solutions have to transport data from
System integration Given two or more systems, subsystems or one computer to another across networks. Compared to a process
components, each of which function properly (satisfying their running on a single computer, distributed computing has to be prepared
requirement within their environment). The problem is to integrate them to deal with a much larger set of possible problems. Often times, two
into one larger system satisfying the combined requirements within the systems to be integrated are separated by continents and data between
newly formed environment. them has to travel through phone-lines, LAN segments, routers, switches,
public networks, and satellite links. Each of these steps can cause delays
Functional integration or technology integration Given a software
or interruptions.
system, this may have been functioning properly in the field for a
significant period. The problem is to integrate a new function or a new Distributed System in the worst case, every application runs on a
technology within the system. The integrated system should provide the completely separate environment, e.g., database storage is not shared
new functionality or use the new technology, while preserving the original among applications. Message-based communication is the only possibility
system functionality. to exchange information.

Incremental engineering A software system can be developed and Networks are slow Sending data across a network is multiple orders of
delivered using available technologies and with less functionality than it is magnitude slower than making a local method call. Designing a widely
intended to finally provide. New technologies and or more functions then distributed solution the same way you would approach a single
can be integrated within the system. The problem is to design the system application could have disastrous performance implications.
with such future integration in mind.
Any two applications are different Integration solutions need to transmit
Modification Sometimes an existing and properly functioning software information between systems that use different programming languages,
system must be decomposed and integrated to carry out modification. operating platforms, and data formats. An integration solution needs to
be able to interface with all these different technologies. Heterogeneous–
Some of the reasons for integration are the following;
each application implements its own data model. Concepts may be
shared, but representation mismatches are to be expected. Mappings and
transformations are required.

Change is inevitable Applications change over time. An integration

solution has to keep pace with changes in the applications it connects.
Integration solutions can easily get caught in an avalanche effect of
changes – if one system changes, all other systems may be affected. An
integration solution needs to minimize the dependencies from one
system to another by using loose coupling between applications.
Autonomous –applications update their state independently without Send and forget— in step 2, the sending application sends the message to
coordinating with each other. The systems to be integrated are the message channel. Once that send is complete, the sender can go on
maintained independently and upgraded at different times. to other work while the messaging system transmits the message in the
background. The sender can be confident that the receiver will eventually
Application integration is an integration framework composed of a
receive the message and does not have to wait until that happens.
collection of technologies and services which form a middleware or
"middleware framework" to enable integration of systems and Store and forward — in step 2, when the sending application sends the
applications across organizations. message to the message channel, the messaging system stores the
message on the sender’s computer, either in memory or on disk. In step
Integrative Technologies/methods for integration
3, the messaging system delivers the message by forwarding it from the
File Transfer one application writes a file that another later reads. The sender’s computer to the receiver’s computer, and then stores the
applications need to agree on the filename and location, the format of the message once again on the receiver’s computer. This store-and-forward
file, the timing of when it will be written and read, and who will delete the process may be repeated many times, as the message is moved from one
file. computer to another, until it reaches the receiver’s computer.

Middleware is a software programming running at the top of operating

system and below the applications. It connects applications or software
components. Middleware provides a standard high level interface to the
application developers and integrators, so that application can easily
interoperate. Interoperability is the ability of two or more components or
systems to exchange information

Shared Database multiple applications share the same database schema,

located in a single physical database. Because there is no duplicate data
storage, no data has to be transferred from one application to the other.
1. Transaction-oriented middleware: supports distributed computing
involving database applications.

Remote Procedure Invocation one application exposes some of its

functionality so that it can be accessed remotely by other applications as
a remote procedure. The communication occurs real-time and
synchronously. 2. Message-oriented middleware: supports reliable, asynchronous
communications between distributed components or applications.

Messaging one application publishes a message to a common message

channel. Other applications can read the message from the channel at a
later time. The applications must agree on a channel as well as the format
of the message. The communication is asynchronous. 3. Object-oriented middleware: systems are based on object-oriented
paradigm, and primarily support synchronous communications between
In essence, a message is transmitted in five steps:
distributed objects or software components. Examples are CORBA, DCOM
1) Create— the sender creates the message and populates it with data. and RMI.

2) Send — the sender adds the message to a channel.

3) Deliver — the messaging system moves the message from the sender’s
computer to the receiver’s computer, making it available to the receiver.

4) Receive — the receiver reads the message from the channel.

5) Process — the receiver extracts the data from the message.

 DCOM COBRA Java RMI Fucoses on roles and Focuses on providing harmony
Protocol ORPC IIOP JRMP responsibilities, coordination and between needs of organization
Language Independent Independent Java control. Organizational chats help and needs of people.
Platform Windows Independent Independent define this frame.
Elements COM ORB Object serialization Political frame: Symbolic frame:
Adoption Windows Enterprise Rapid applications, Assumes organizations are Focuses on symbols and meaning
and use application applications, Small applications coalitions composed of varied related to events. Culture is
Large-scale individuals and interest groups. important.
applications Conflict and power are key
Performance High Low Medium issues.
CORBA is a software standard that is defined and maintained by the The project managers are significant stakeholders because they must take
Object Management Group (OMG). The Common Object Request Broker time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project
Architecture (CORBA) is a standard architecture for a distributed objects stakeholders. Using the four frames of organizations can help meet
system. CORBA is designed to allow distributed objects to interoperate in stakeholder needs and expectations and analyze a formal organization to
a heterogenous environment, where objects can be implemented in understand such. Senior executives are very important stakeholders.
different programming language and/or deployed on different platforms.
There are eight known organizational structure of project management
(organic, line, line & staff, functional, divisional, matrix, project, and
virtual). However, I just want you to focus on the four general types of
basic organizational structure are deemed viable in the nature of project
development - functional, divisional, matrix, and project-based.
INTE-1-M2
1) The Functional Organization groups workers based on their area of
In an Industry setting, many systems are built to easy, improve, and
specialization. This structure is an extension of the Line Organization. The
transform organizations. Some organizations have many departments
functional manager leads the team and manages all the operations or
that run systems that are independent of each other. And systems built
businesses. The structure positions departments vertically and
sometimes, may not have an abstract view (architecture) which leads to
disconnected from others. The department heads manage
failure of system interoperability. There is a need to have an architectural
communication between the top management and his subordinates.
view of the system as a priority to help in the design to avoid the
likeliness of system failure. 2) This type of organizational design focuses on service lines like products,
customers, area, and time. Since they operate as small organizations, they
Origin of Information System Projects
are called “self-contained structures.” – a divisional structure. The team
To understand more the information system flow means you can look into members work in different departments. This setup splits the employees
the details of an IS project. A new or changed IS development projects into segments based on products, markets, or services. This, they work
come from problems, opportunities, and Directives and are always independently on divisional goals. But all divisions collectively meet the
subject to one or more constraints. organizational policies and business objectives.

Problems may either be current, suspected, or anticipated. These are 3) This one is the combination of a projectized and functional organization
undesirable situations that prevent the business from fully achieving its also known as Matrix structure. This hybrid organization overcomes the
purpose, goals, and objectives (users discovering real problems with limitations of each organization. Here, both the functional and project
existing IS). managers share their respective authorities. This type of organization is
most useful when workers must share available resources. The
Opportunities are chances to improve the business even in the absence combination achieves high efficiency and better usage of available
of specific problems. This means that the business is hoping to create a resources. Also, they adapt better to the changing trends.
system that will help it with increasing its revenue, profit, or services, or
decreasing its costs. 4) Project organization is a temporary setup formed for specific projects.
It's also called “projectized organizational structure.” The project
Directives are new requirements that are imposed by management, manager assigned for the project is the head of this structure. Once the
government, or some external influence i.e. are mandates that come project is complete, the project manager may choose to dismantle this
from either an internal or external source of the business. setup or move it to form a new project. In the case of a new project, the
project manager might have to reshuffle the staff to fit the new plan. You
In working on a project, it must operate in a broad organizational
will hire resources or specialists from different functional departments.
environment and cannot be run isolated. The project managers need to
take a holistic or systems view of a project and understand how it is In a system development, the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a
situated within the larger organization. One important component to be framework for describing the phases involved in developing and
considered is the stakeholders. These are the people involved in or maintaining information systems.
affected by project activities. Stakeholders include the project sponsor
and project team, support staff, customers, users, suppliers, opponents to Systems development projects can follow two models: Predictive models:
the project. The scope of the project can be clearly articulated and the schedule and
cost can be predicted,
According to the Standish Group’s report “CHAOS 2001: A Recipe for
Success,” the following items help IT projects succeed, in order of e.g., Waterfall, Spiral, Incremental, Prototyping or Rapid Application
importance: Development (RAD) models

• Executive support • Formal methodology Adaptive models: Projects are mission driven and component based,
•Standard software • Clear business objectives using time-based cycles to meet target dates,
infrastructure • Reliable estimates
e.g., Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum or Agile models
• User involvement • Minimized scope
• Firm basic requirements Requirements are statements that identify the essential needs of a
•Experienced project manager
system for it to have value and utility. These are fundamental basis of all
the system development processes.
Structured frame: Human resources frame:
System architects will always base of the requirements elicited by the representation of the concept of system integration. An ERP software
system analyst to design an architectural view of the system. Besides typically integrates all aspects of operations which includes product
much as the system is designed and there is need for integration say planning and development, procurement, vendor management,
business process, legacy, new systems, business-to-business, integration manufacturing, sales, and marketing, all in one database and user
of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products, interface control and interface. The primary objective of an ERP, much like system integration,
management, testing, integrated program management, integrated is usually to lower costs rather than increase revenue, e.g., QNE Software,
Business Continuity Planning (BCP), requirement is the basis. ANSI.ph, and Yokogawa Philippines.

Requirement Life Cycle

1) Elicitation Phase. It is the starting point of the requirements SI METHODS

production process is an elicitation process that involves several people to
ensure consideration of a broad scope of potential ideas and candidate Point-to-point integration system consists
problems. of simple connections between two
subsystems rather than a complex network.
2) Organization Phase. In this step there is no transformation of the The simplicity of this method makes it ideal
requirements, but simple classification and categorization, e.g. for businesses that focus on enhancing one
requirements may be grouped into functional vs. nonfunctional function instead of implementing an entire
requirements. database.

3) Analysis Phase. It represents a transformation. Star Integration also known as spaghetti

integration, is a collection of point-to-point
4) Prototype Phase. If the requirements are poorly understood, in this connections in a star polyhedron sequence.
way, you may be tested and perhaps strengthened, corrected, or refined. This structure is not only able to connect
This phase is often done as a proof of concept and serves to bring software but also makes interconnections
feedback from both the stakeholders and developers (engineers). between other subsystems. However, because
5) Requirements documentation and specification. This represents the of its complex mechanism, if a developer were
requirements as the finished product of the stakeholder requirements to make a physical model of star integration, it would look like a plate of
team. The requirements are compiled into a requirement list or into some spaghetti, hence its nickname, it requires more maintenance.
equivalent document format. These collected requirements are then Horizontal Integration
transformed into a specification. establishes a subsystem that
System Integration (SI) refers to the process by which multiple individual acts as the centralized database
subsystems or sub-components are combined into one all-encompassing that all other software connects
larger system thereby allowing the subsystems to function together. In to. This reduces the number of connections needed to integrate all
other words, the symbiosis created through system integration allows the processes by eliminating interconnections. Thus, minimizing links saves
main system to achieve the overarching functionality required by the time, capital, and effort required to build and maintain the solution.
organization. Vertical Integration method forms individual silo
As we are discussing, an integration project requires extensive planning, structures based on the subsystems' functions. In
system design, and software development to ensure successful otherwards, this strategy groups similar software
implementation. In a business's point of views, can begin the process by together without making interconnections to
following seven comprehensive steps (self-explanatory): systems handling other operations, e.g., a silo would
be created for linking a point-of-sale (POS) processor
(1) Determine Requirements (5) Design System Integration with inventory management an d ordering software
(2) Conduct Analysis (6) Implement the Solution because they handle similar functions.
(3)Design Software Infrastructure (7) Perform Maintenance Checks.
(4) Develop a Management Plan Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a software development model
that makes services reusable and lets them communicate across different
There are two systems that you must consider. Simply, the first one is platforms and languages to form new applications. An SOA service is a
Customer Relationship self-contained unit of software designed to complete a specific task.
Management (CRM) system, Applications use SOA and simple interface standards to access services to
which helps organize, manage form new applications.
and, at the end of the day, use
customer data. A CRM is a form
of system integration that keeps
the business up to date on each
customer’s contact details,
transaction history, accounts as
well as communication. In other
words, your company’s entire
‘relationship’ with customer is available briefly and the primary objective
of the system is to help you improve sales, e.g., SalesForce.com, Devtac
Asia, and Avanza, Inc.

On the other hand, an Enterprise

Components of SOA
Resource Planning (ERP) system
is designed to manage all business Service the foundation of SOA.
processes and automate various Services can be private and Service consumer is the
backend or back-office functions available only to authorized users individual, system, application or
that need not be carried out or open source and publicly other service that makes service
manually. In many ways, itis the available. Each service contains a requests to the service provider.
 service implementation, which is The service contract describes Benefits of service-oriented architecture
the code responsible for the rules for interaction between
performing the service; a service a service provider and service Standardization. SOA uses the RPC model commonly from structured
contract, which describes the requester. programming. It standardizes how business processes are automated and
parameters of a service and its cost used in a way that maintains security and governance.
and quality; and a service interface,
which is the layer of a service that Reusability. Services can be reused to make multiple applications. SOA
defines how to communicate with services are held in a repository and linked on demand, making each
it and handles communication with service a resource available to all, subject to governance constraints.
other services and systems. Reusing services saves organizations time and lowers development costs
associated.
Service provider creates or Service registry. Also known as a
provides the service. Most service repository, a service Ease of maintenance. Since all services are independent, they can be
organizations either create their registry is a directory of available easily modified and updated without affecting other services. This lowers
own service or use third-party services. It is tasked with storing an organization's operating costs and speeds time to market for
services. service descriptions and other applications being developed.
relevant information about how
to use a service provider's Interoperability promotion use of a standardized communication
services. protocol lets platforms easily transmit data among clients and services
regardless of the languages they're built on..
Major objectives of SOA
High availability. SOA facilities are available to anyone upon request.
Service. aims to structure Security. The third objective of SOA
procedures or software is to control the use of services to Increased reliability. SOA generates more reliable applications because
components as services. Services avoid security and governance it's easier to debug small services than large code.
are designed to be loosely coupled problems. SOA relies on the
Scalability SOA lets service run on different servers, increasing scalability.
to applications, so they're only security of the individual
used when needed. They're also components within the In addition, using a standard communication protocol allows
designed so software developers architecture; the identity and organizations to reduce the level of interaction between clients and
can easily use them to create authentication procedures related services. With a lower level of interaction, applications can be scaled
applications in a consistent way. to those components; and the without adding extra pressure.
security of the connections
between the components of the The Web Services architecture describes how to instantiate the elements
architecture. and implement the operations in an interoperable manner.

The service provider hosts a network-associable module (web service). It

Publishing. SOA also aims to provide a mechanism for publishing available
services that includes their functionality and input/output defines a service description for the web service and publishes it to a
requirements. Services are published in a way that lets developers easily service requestor or service registry. These service requestor uses a find
incorporate them into applications operation to retrieve the service description locally or from the service
Most SOAs are implanted using an enterprise service bus (ESB). ESBs are registry. It uses the service description to bind with the service provider
so frequently used with SOAs that the terms are sometimes used and invoke with the web service implementation.
interchangeably. An ESB is an architectural pattern that lets centralized
software components integrate between applications. ESBs transform
data models, handle routing and messaging, convert communication
protocols, and manage the writing of multiple requests.

Roles in a Web Service Architecture

Service Provider From an architectural perspective, it is the platform that

hosts the services.

Service requestor is the application that is looking for and invoking or

initiating an interaction with a service. The browser plays the requester
role, driven by a consumer or a program without a user interface.

Service requestors find service and obtain binding information for

services during development.

Publish In the publish operation, a service description must be published

Common applications of SOA include the following:
so that a service requester can find the service.
Military forces use SOA to deploy situational awareness systems.
Find In the find operation, the service requestor retrieves the service
Healthcare organizations use it to improve healthcare delivery. description directly. It can be involved in two different lifecycle phases for
the service requestor:
Mobile apps and games use SOA to access a device's built-in functions,
such as the global positioning system. • At design, time to retrieve the service's interface description for
program development.
Museums use SOA to create virtualized storage systems for their
information and content. • And, at the runtime to retrieve the service's binding and location
description for invocation.
Bind In the bind operation, the service requestor invokes or initiates an
interaction with the service at runtime using the binding details in the
service description to locate, contact, and invoke the service.

Web Service Implementation

Lifecycle

The objective of the requirements phase is to understand the business

requirement and translate them into the web services requirement. The
requirement analyst should do requirement elicitation (it is the practice of
researching and discovering the requirements of the system from the
user, customer, and other stakeholders). The analyst should interpret,
consolidate, and communicate these requirements to the development
team. The requirements should be grouped in a centralized repository
where they can be viewed, prioritized, and mined for interactive features

The purpose of the analysis phase is to refine and translate the web
service into conceptual models by which the technical development team
can understand. It also defines the high-level structure and identifies the
web service interface contracts.

Design Phase In this phase, the detailed design of web services is done.
The designers define web service interface contract that has been
identified in the analysis phase. The defined web service interface
contract identifies the elements and the corresponding data types as well
as mode of interaction between web services and client.

Coding Phase Coding and debugging phase is quite similar to other

software component-based coding and debugging phase. The main
difference lies in the creation of additional web service interface
wrappers, generation of WSDL, and client stubs.

Test Phase In this phase, the tester performs interoperability testing

between the platform and the client's program. Testing to be conducted
is to ensure that web services can bear the maximum load and stress.
Other tasks like profiling of the web service application and inspection of
the SOAP message should also perform in the test phase.

The purpose of the deployment phase is to ensure that the web service is
properly deployed in the distributed system. It executes after the testing
phase. The primary task of deployer is to ensure that the web service has
been properly configured and managed. Other optional tasks like
specifying and registering the web service with a UDDI registry also done
in this phase.