SIA102

System Integration
and Architecture

Name:

Course: BSIT
Instructor: JoÅl
 |PRAYER

|OVERVIEW
On this course, students will build upon the ICT knowledge gained throughout the degree
program by developing skills in advance System Integration and Architecture for IT, its role of
systems architecture in systems integration, performance, and effectiveness, principles, and concepts
of developments, the interplay between IT applications roll‐out and related organizational processes.
This course studies the process of integrating different systems and software applications by
examining current and emerging trends, strategies, and techniques for developing systems integration
solutions effectively. Topics covered include, but are not limited to: documenting integration
requirements using business process models, designing integration solutions reusing patterns, and
implementing integration solutions using service-oriented architecture. These will extend course
topics via the library, programming, tool evaluation, and other assigned activities and implementations
for planning, design, and development.

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MODULE 1 of 5 |
Review of System Integration Concepts and Issues |

|LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Define and explain key concepts, approaches, requirement, life cycles, and strategies related
to systems integration projects
• Describe and apply organizational and managerial issues related to systems integration
projects
• Explain and utilize key systems integration architecture, planning, methodologies, and
technologies
• Identify and assess current and emerging systems integration tools using middleware
applications
• Define and analyze systems integration requirements using business process models
• Design feasible solutions for an integration problem that utilizes proven design solutions
described in integration patterns
• Apply advanced integration technologies to implement system integration solutions through
architectural designs
• Prepare portfolio to be submitted

|LEARNING EXPECTATIONS
In this module, I expect you to: plan and create a design of an application utilizing an
architectural design in system integration.

|LEARNING RESOURCES
1. Electronic Devices (Laptop, Desktop, Netbook, tablet or smartphone)
2. Browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera)
3. Flash Drive (8GB minimum capacity with a name tag).
4. Internet Connection & Online resources

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 | INTRODUCTION

As we can embark on the fast-track development of our technology processes today, these
systems need to diverge small pieces to evaluate every part to them to converge, to integrate as one
big system. A simple website example can be a portal for many systems and platforms that can be
stored, retrieved, and used what every available media can be used to access them through its
successful architectural design and development.

In an Industry setting, many systems are built to easy, improve, and transform organizations.
Some organizations have many departments that run systems that are independent of each other.
And systems built sometimes, may not have an abstract view (architecture) which leads to failure of
system interoperability. There is a need to have an architectural view of the system as a priority to
help in the design to avoid the likeliness of system failure.

Besides after the system has been designed and developed in consideration of the size of the
organization, i.e. most especially when the organization is large, need is required to integrate such
systems to ensure flexibility, Speed, Cost, Standardization, Data integrity, reliability, and
robustness. This can help Information Technology (IT), energy, and financial services industry
among others to have an easy-to-use integrated system.

System, Integration, Architecture

These three terms can be defined separately but we can just focus on two significant phrases,
which certainly tackled from your first encounter with this subject. Let’s begin:

| Kindly define concisely the three given terms below.

Terms Definition

System

Integration

Architecture

Good job!
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Other Key Terms

Various key terminologies shall be used throughout this course as follows:

| Kindly define concisely the terminologies below.

Terms Definition

Systems
thinking

System
Integration

Project

System
Architecture

Good job!

Origin of Information System Projects

To understand more the information system flow means you can look into the details of an IS
project. A new or changed IS development projects come from problems, opportunities, and
directives and are always subject to one or more constraints.

• Problems may either be current, suspected, or anticipated. These are undesirable situations
that prevent the business from fully achieving its purpose, goals, and objectives (users
discovering real problems with existing IS).

• Opportunities are chances to improve the business even in the absence of specific
problems. This means that the business is hoping to create a system that will help it with
increasing its revenue, profit, or services, or decreasing its costs.

• Directives are new requirements that are imposed by management, government, or some
external influence i.e. are mandates that come from either an internal or external source of
the business.
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 In working on a project, it must operate in a broad organizational 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 situated within the larger organization.

One important component to be considered is the stakeholders. These are the people involved
in or affected by project activities. Stakeholders include the project sponsor and project team,
support staff, customers, users, suppliers, opponents to the project.

According to the Standish Group’s report “CHAOS 2001: A Recipe for Success,” the following
items help IT projects succeed, in order of importance:
• Executive support • Standard software infrastructure
• User involvement • Firm basic requirements
• Experienced project manager • Formal methodology
• Clear business objectives • Reliable estimates
• Minimized scope

The project managers

are significant stakeholders
because they must take time
to identify, understand, and
manage relationships with
all project stakeholders.
Using the four frames of
organizations can help meet
stakeholder needs and
expectations and analyze a
formal organization to
understand such. Senior
executives are very
important stakeholders.

As most people understand what organizational charts are, many organizations focus on the
Structural Frame. Many new managers try to change organizational structure when changes are
needed.

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 The basic Organizational Structure depends on the company and/or the project. This structure
helps define the roles and responsibilities of the members of the department, workgroup, or
organization. It is generally a system of tasks and reporting policies in place to give members of the
group a direction when completing projects. A good organizational structure will allow people and
groups to work effectively together while developing hard work ethics and attitudes.

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.

1) The Functional Organization groups workers based on their area of specialization. This
structure is an extension of the Line Organization. The functional manager leads the team
and manages all the operations or businesses. The structure positions departments vertically
and disconnected from others. The department heads manage communication between the
top management and his subordinates.

2) This type of organizational design focuses on service lines like products, customers, area,
and time. Since they operate as small organizations, they are called “self-contained
structures.” – a divisional structure. The team members work in different departments.
This setup splits the employees into segments based on products, markets, or services. This,
they work independently on divisional goals. But all divisions collectively meet the
organizational policies and business objectives.

3) This one is the combination of a projectized and functional organization also known as
Matrix structure. This hybrid organization overcomes the limitations of each organization.
Here, both the functional and project managers share their respective authorities. This type
of organization is most useful when workers must share available resources. The
combination achieves high efficiency and better usage of available resources. Also, they
adapt better to the changing trends.

4) Project organization is a temporary setup formed for specific projects. It's also called
“projectized organizational structure.” The project manager assigned for the project is the
head of this structure. Once the project is complete, the project manager may choose to
dismantle this 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 will hire resources
or specialists from different functional departments.

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 | Kindly illustrate a simple diagram to show its structure below.
Structure Illustration/ Diagram

Functional

Divisional

Matrix

Project-
organizational

Good job!
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Project Life Cycle and Project Phases

One of the important

components of a project
development is the Project
Life Cycle. A project life
cycle is a collection of project
phases. These phases vary by
project or industry, but some
phases include concept,
development, implementation,
and support or close-out.

In a system development, the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework for
describing the phases involved in developing and maintaining information systems. Systems
development projects can follow two models:

• Predictive models: The scope of the project can be clearly articulated and the schedule
and cost can be predicted, e.g., Waterfall, Spiral, Incremental, Prototyping or Rapid
Application Development (RAD) models
• Adaptive models: Projects are mission driven and component based, using time-based
cycles to meet target dates, e.g., Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum or Agile models

| Kindly draw in the box one of the Predictive and Adaptive models to differentiate them.
Predictive model: ____________________ Adaptive model: _____________________

Good work!
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Requirements

I will just give you the streamlined contents and I will not go deeper into details. But what you
must know is that a system cannot be analyzed, designed, implemented, and evaluated unless the
problem is understood and requirements elicited. Requirements are statements that identify the
essential needs of a system for it to have value and utility. These are fundamental basis of all the
system development processes.

System architects will always base of the requirements elicited by the system analyst to design
an architectural view of the system. Besides much as the system is designed and there is need for
integration say business process, legacy, new systems, business-to-business, integration of
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products, interface control and management, testing, integrated
program management, integrated Business Continuity Planning (BCP), requirement is the basis.

Requirement Life Cycle

1) Elicitation Phase. It is
the starting point of the
requirements production
process is an elicitation
process that involves
several people to ensure
consideration of a broad
scope of potential ideas
and candidate problems.

2) Organization Phase. In this step there is no transformation of the requirements, but simple
classification and categorization, e.g. requirements may be grouped into functional vs.
nonfunctional requirements.

3) Analysis Phase. It represents a transformation.

4) Prototype Phase. If the requirements are poorly understood, in this way, you may be tested
and perhaps strengthened, corrected, or refined. This phase is often done as a proof of
concept and serves to bring feedback from both the stakeholders and developers (engineers).

5) Requirements documentation and specification. This represents the requirements as the

finished product of the stakeholder requirements team. The requirements are compiled into
a requirement list or into some equivalent document format. These collected requirements
are then transformed into a specification.

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 You may also use different tools that aid in developing & understanding system requirements
like: Affinity diagrams, Force-field analysis, Ishikawa fishbone (cause-and-effect) diagrams, Pareto
diagrams, Pugh charts, Quality function deployment (QFD), other tools that you find suitable for
your project development.

System Integration

System Integration (SI) refers to the process by which multiple individual subsystems or sub-
components are combined into one all-encompassing larger system thereby allowing the subsystems
to function together. In other words, the symbiosis created through system integration allows the
main system to achieve the overarching functionality required by the organization.

As we are discussing, an integration project requires extensive planning, system design, and
software development to ensure successful implementation. In a business’s point of views, can
begin the process by following seven comprehensive steps (self-explanatory): (1) Determine
Requirements, (2) Conduct Analysis, (3) Design Software Infrastructure, (4) Develop a
Management Plan, (5) Design System Integration, (6) Implement the Solution, (7) Perform
Maintenance Checks.

CRM Systems vs. ERP Systems

There are two systems that

you must consider. Simply, the
first one is Customer
Relationship Management
(CRM) system, which helps
organize, manage 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.

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 On the other hand, an
Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system is
designed to manage all
business processes and
automate various backend
or back office functions
that need not be carried out
manually. In many ways, it
is the representation of the
concept of system
integration. An ERP
software typically
integrates all aspects of
operations which includes
product planning and
development,
procurement, vendor
management, manufacturing, sales, and marketing, all in one database and user interface. The
primary objective of an ERP, much like system integration, is usually to lower costs rather than
increase revenue, e.g., QNE Software, ANSI.ph, and Yokogawa Philippines.

SI Methods

Determining an appropriate systems integration solution is not a simple task by any means.
You must select the correct subsystems, the correct locations, and the correct nature of the
relationship. For this it is very important that you as a company understand exactly what processes
are involved, how they interact with all the stakeholders as well as the business objectives. If you
are clear about why and where the business requires harmony in operations, the systems integration
will go smoothly. Thus, you must also determine which system integration method can handle their
specific data management. Typically, there are four main strategies. These are:

(1) Point-to-Point Integration. A point-to-point integration

system consists of simple connections between two
subsystems rather than a complex network. The simplicity of
this method makes it ideal for businesses that focus on
enhancing one function instead of implementing an entire
database.

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 (2) Star Integration. A star integration, also known as spaghetti
integration, is a collection of point-to-point connections in a star
polyhedron sequence. This structure is not only able to connect
software but also makes interconnections between other
subsystems. However, because of its complex mechanism, if a
developer were to make a physical model of star integration, it
would look like a plate of spaghetti, hence its nickname, it
requires more maintenance.

(3) Horizontal Integration. This integration

establishes a subsystem that acts as the
centralized database that all other software
connects to. This reduces the number of
connections needed to integrate all processes by eliminating interconnections. Thus,
minimizing links saves time, capital, and effort required to build and maintain the solution.

(4) Vertical Integration. This integration method forms individual

silo structures based on the subsystems' functions. In other
words, this strategy groups similar software together without
making interconnections to systems handling other operations,
e.g., a silo would be created for linking a point-of-sale (POS)
processor with inventory management and ordering software
because they handle similar functions.

| Now, if I may ask, based on these life cycles, SLDC for example, that we have discussed,
what did you use in the development of your website? Why?

Good work!

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 | Based on any WDLC (Web Development Life Cycle) deemed appropriate to your web
design, kindly draw your WDLC design for your website. Give the details for every phase,
not only the template. For example, “Planning Phase: GATHERING INFORMATION – I
do visit my client and collect all necessary and relevant information to meet the
requirements needed before any analysis push through.” The 1st Phase of other WDLCs can
be “Discovery”, “Analysis” “Plan,” or “(Define) Requirements” (You can refer to online
WDLC).

Web Development Life Cycle Illustration/ Design

Good work!
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 | LEARNING SUMMARY
In this module, I learned that…

Evident with my…

In this module, I need to know more about the concepts of…

| REFLECTION
Now that you have reviewed and familiarized with the concepts of System Integration and
Architecture, how can you apply this in some of your projects?

YES! We are done with our 1st module!

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 |REFERENCES
• Nagmoti, 2020, “8 Common Types of Organizational Structures in Project Management”,
retrieved October 20, 2020 from https://www.greycampus.com/blog/project-
management/common-types-of-organizational-structures-in-project-management

• Admin, 2018, “4 Types of Organizational Structures”, retrieved October 18, 2020 from
https://online.pointpark.edu/business/types-of-organizational-structures/

• Margaret, 2018, “System Integration and Design”, retrieved October 18, 2020 from
https://slideplayer.com/slide/12852130/

• Henderson, 2020, “System Integration Process- 7 Steps to Follow”, retrieved October 18, 2020
from https://anyconnector.com/system-integration/system-integration-process.html

• Folio3, 2019, “What is System Integration and how do you do it?”, retrieved October 18, 2020
from https://dynamics.folio3.com/blog/system-integration/

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