Secrets to Successful Software Integration (continued)
A Failure to Communicate
Software integration is made up of five key components, says Childress. They include the underlying architecture or tools that will be used; governance, where IT and business discuss the scope and priority of requests; the rules put in place for workflow; the behavioral or cultural aspect and service management. IT departments tend to focus on the first three components when negotiating with integration enablers; the latter two, however, are equally important.
If you don't have a culture that wants to and is incented to leverage the organization's integrated business system, you'll reintegrate the same business functions three or four times during various projects, notes Childress. This IT version of reinventing the wheel is exactly what application integration attempts to avoid.
Service management is the other piece companies often overlook. This component dictates how a company manages its business processes, applications and underlying infrastructure so systems can run 24/7 with zero downtime. Service management also addresses when an application can be taken down for maintenance and provides a solution if a piece of the infrastructure fails.
Also, when integrating the two systems, IT managers must make sure they understand the language of both the data and the event architecture. Otherwise, Childress warns, there may be a misunderstanding of basic terms like "employee." (article continues)
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