An overview of the methodology

The term methodology is used here to refer to a sequence of steps for using the background you have acquired to devise a successful integration strategy that will both help an organization meet its immediate goals and contribute to the organizations future capability to reduce the ammount of time it spends on configuration and conversation(maintanence).

These are the five major steps in the methodology:

1. Architectural analysis 2. Identification of key areas of functionality for productivity tools 3. Definition of strategy and process 4. Plan for auditability and reuse 5. Criteria for evaluating integrations technology

Recommending a methodology that consists of a sequence of steps may seem to contradict the current best practices of using an iteractive and incremental approach to software developlment. However this methodology descrbies a set of activities that should take place before the development of an application begins, because it is intended to provide guidelines and criteria to the individuals responsible for implementing applications regarding:

Potential area of risk Strategies to facilitate efficient communication among stakeholders in the application initative Criteria for evaluation of integration technology to ensure a choice that balances the organizations short - and long term needs

Question

Use the methodology described in this chapter to describe the challenges and criteria for solutions that should be used in developing an integration strategy for the following scenarios:

A financial services company has grown by acquistion and has multiple systems for customer account data. The company does not want to replace these systems because the different lines of business have different operating requirements. The company has decided to build a data warehouse to consolidate all customer data into one system and wants to have the first iteration of the data warehouse available within 1 year. There is also an initative to evaluate, select, and implement a CRM application within 2 years, and of course SOA is on the roadmap for some nebulous date in the future.

A bank wants to migrate off its old mainframe IMS-based proprieatry application to a new UNIX DB2-based application. The CIO wants to have the new application loaded and operational within 1 year, but there are so many critical reporting interfaces to the old application that they cant all be rebuilt within 1 year. The IT department is recommending that the new application become the master and feed information back to the IMS slave application, which will then feed the reporting interfaces.

Company A manufacturers athletic wear sold around the world. Regional distributors maintain inventory and stock local stores. Throughout the year, Company A swithes it smanufactugint to season-appropriate clothing. But different regions, especially in differnet hemispheres, have different seasons. Company A , located in North America, may change from summer clothes to winter clothes just when South America is going into its ummer season. The regional distributors get stuck with out-of-seaon inventory that might be useful to another distributor. The goal of the project is to help the regional distributor share inventory information so they can request inventory from other regions, and to help Company A prepare a more accurate picture over tiem of what type of apparel is needed when. The regional distributors are not currently network-connected with Company A but have some level of access to the Internet-they can get to a website and download/upload information. Connectivity is expected to improve in the future.