Questions

Example values

Effects on design

What type of data needs to be integrated?

Sales orders, purchase orders, and so on

This will help you determine whether you can use any existing data entities or need to create a new one.

What kind of integration type will the other applications support?

XML, web services, and flat file

This will help you determine the technology to use.

What is the availability of the systems that are being integrated?

What are the requirements of real-time data exchanges?

Asynchronous or synchronous

This will help you determine the integration technology and configuration requirements.

Is the integration based on the pull model or the push model?

Pull, push, and eventdriven

This will help you determine the technology and configuration of the exchange event.

What is the volume of transactions?

Number of transactions (daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly)

This will help you determine the scale of integration, suitable integration technology, and deployment options.

What will be the frequency of data exchange?

Timing per second, minute, and hour

This information helps you determine how to configure the integration solution.

What business rules are associated with the data?

Sequence of events and exception handling

This will help you determine the customization requirement for the document exchange.

Does the data need to be transformed?

Will the transformations be performed before data is sent or when data is received?

Extent of transformation--field level mapping, value mapping, and flat file to XML or vice versa

This will help you determine which integration configuration and transformations need to be used.

Is the external system an in-house system or an external trading partner?

Security and encryption requirements

This will help you determine how the users and security need be configured.