Systems integration and architecting: An overview of principles, practices, and perspectives

Abstract

Systems Integration is an activity omnipresent in almost all of systems engineering and management. Often the term lacks precise definition and is used in different ways and for different purposes in the engineering of systems. This paper presents an overview of systems integration at all levels of system engineering and management. The goal of the paper is to present the various views of systems integration including lifecycle, architecture, process, interface, and enterprise, as well as product integration involving software and hardware. We examine systems engineering process, including several process models in an attempt to reveal the activities associated with integration during the engineering of systems. We review the characteristics of interfaces between systems of systems and users that generally give rise to many systems integration concerns. Without very careful effort at developing an appropriate architecture for a system, there will be little hope of integration. We discuss the role of systems management and knowledge integration in architecting for systems integration. Also presented are several contemporary perspectives on system architectures and their role in the engineering and integration of systems. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Syst Eng 1: 176–227, 1998

Integration Readiness levels Evaluation and Systems Architecture: A Literature Review

“…For Sage and Lynch (1998), the integration of technical parameters and interface compatibility are generally assumed as a technical effort carried out during the latter parts of the system development lifecycle. However, if this effort is not planned properly in the definition phases and in the early parts of the development phase, integration is likely to be difficult at the end of the development phase.…”

“…In this way, Sage and Lynch (1998) suggested that if we consider that the activities of analysis, definition, design, requirements and control of interfaces are all integration efforts, then the system integration occurs at almost every stage of the systems development lifecycle, not just in its later stages.…”

Enterprise Transformation — Implications for Enterprise Information Systems

“…The technical view is a set of rules defining the interactions and interdependencies of system elements to assure compatibility and satisfaction of requirements. The system view describes the physical connections, locations, key nodes, etc, needed to support enterprise functions (23) . Transformation of work processes inherently must affect the operational view of the architecture.…”

Automatically detecting mismatches during component-based and model-based development

“…[ Sage-Lynch 1998] stress "the important role that architecture plays in system integration." They present the need for three major views: enterprise view, systems engineering and management view, and technology implementation view -and they stress to ensure consistency among these views.…”