Integration

Definition

Integration

the management and engineering activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to connect together components to produce a working system or application

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, Integration is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Abstract
• Superclass: Management and Engineering Activities
• Subclasses:
  • Business Integration
  • System Integration
  • Application Integration
  • Hardware Component Integration
  • Software Component Integration

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of Integration are to:

• Plan the integration process.
• Integrate the:
  • Business’ components into an executing business.
  • System’s components into an executing system.
  • Application’s components into an executing application.
• Ensure that the system or application is adequately integrated to begin system testing.
• Report the success or failure of the integration process.

Preconditions

Integration typically may begin when the following preconditions hold:

• Business Integration:
  • The business optimization phase has started.
  • The enterprise management team is initially staffed and adequately trained in business integration.
• Application Integration:
  • The initiation phase has started.
  • The integration team is initially staffed and adequately trained in integration and necessary techniques such as source code control.

Completion Criteria

Integration is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The components of the business enterprise have been integrated into a functioning business.
• The system components have been integrated into a functioning system.
• The application components have been integrated into a functioning application.

Tasks

Integration typically involves the following producers performing the following integration tasks in an iterative, incremental, parallel and time-boxed manner:

• Enterprise Management Team, which performs during business integration:
  • Integration Planning
  • Component Integration
  • Integration Reporting
• Integration Team, which performs during other types of integration:
  • Integration Planning
  • Component Integration
  • Integration Reporting

Environments

Integration is typically performed using the following environment(s) and associated tools:

• Management Environment:
  • Configuration management tools
  • Documentation tools
• Integration Environment:
  • Configuration management tools
  • LowerCASE tools

Work Products

Integration typically results in the production of the following integration work products:

• Plans:
  • Business Transition Plan
  • Integration Plan
• Integrated Work Products:
  • Business (Business Integration)
  • System (System Integration)
  • Application (Application Integration)
  • Hardware Component (Hardware Component Integration)
  • Software Component (Software Component Integration)
• Integration Report

Phases

Integration tasks are typically performed during the following phases:

• Business Strategy: Started (for Business Integration)
• Business Optimization: Completed (for Business Integration)
• Initiation: Started (with plans and prototypes)
• Construction: Completed (for other types of integration)
• Delivery: Repeated (as necessary)
• Usage: Repeated (as necessary)
• Retirement: Not Applicable

Guidelines

• An iterative, incremental, parallel development cycle uses continuous integration during the endeavor rather than a single big-bang integration effort at the end of the construction phase.
• This activity is documented using the typical configuration for large projects. It is intended to be configured (i.e., instantiated, extended, and tailored) to meet the needs of specific projects.
• The preconditions of this activity should be the union of the preconditions of its constituent tasks.
• The completion criteria for this activity should be the union of the postconditions of its constituent tasks.