1. “We need the integration up and running tomorrow.
Can you do it?”
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2. UK Academy for Information Systems 2004
Lisbon
Portugal
An integration methodology based on
the Enterprise Architecture
Marta Guerra (mncg@netcabo.pt)
Miguel Pardal (mflpar@yahoo.co.uk)
Miguel Mira Silva (mms@dei.ist.utl.pt)
May 6th 2004

3. Overview
• Organizational environment
• Enterprise Architecture
• Methodology
• Conclusions
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4. Organizational environment
• Adaptive Enterprise
– Challenges from environmental changes
• Enterprise Application Integration
– Share data between applications
– Integration barriers
• Technology
• Syntax
• Semantics
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5. Steven Spewak (1993)
Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Architecture Planning,
John Wiley & Sons
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6. Integration with Enterprise Architecture
• Semantic context:
– Enterprise Architecture Data
dictionary
• Organization, Management
and Technology
perspectives
• People-centric approach
• Consider future
developments and
organizational change
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7. Methodology phases
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8. A – Problem definition
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9. Integration problem
• Identify applications:
– Integrated School Management System (ISMS)
– Student Portfolios
– Teacher portal
• Identify goal:
– Assure coherent view of student data between
Portfolios and ISMS
– Login into Teacher portal using user name and
password from ISMS
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10. B – Applications analysis
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11. Interview
Application: Student Portfolios
Stakeholders: Artur Ferreira da Silva (business); Mira da Silva (development)
Meeting date: August 2003
Application Goals: Portfolio are extra-curricula activities students perform to
obtain credits. The application allows sign in, mechanisms for proposal
aprovals, notifications by email and activities publishing.
Users: DEI’s students and lecturers
Technological Platform: Windows Platform - Microsoft .Net; SQL Server;
Development history: August 2003 – product development;
Suggested integrations: get students list from ISMS, submitt Portfolio information to
ISMS, issue reports with student and lecturer data, validate user access in
ISMS;
Documentation received: database scripts and application source code
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12. Data linking
Student Portfolios
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13. Student Portfolios
Functionality linking
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14. Application linking
Non-aligned items
Aligned items
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EA application linking

15. Semantic linking for other applications
• Integrated School • Teacher Portal
Management System
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16. C – Specification
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17. Specification perspectives
• ER-I – Entity-Relationship for Integration
– Data model
• DFD-I – Data Flow Diagrams for Integration
– Functional model
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18. ER-I example
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19. DFD-I example
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20. Transformation
• Convert source schema instance to a target schema instance
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21. D – Implementation
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22. Implementation
• Use specification schemas
• Choose integration engine
• Example: webMethods
– Doctypes
– Flows
– Adapters
...
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23. Methodology phases
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24. Integration scenario evaluation
• Methodology proved beneficial in the following aspects:
– Deciding data and ownership by applications
– Detecting non-aligned functionalities
– Avoid many-to-many transformations using Enterprise Architecture data dictionary
– Graphical schemas for faster comparison of solutions and enhance communication
between the project team
• The integration scenario also revealed some limitations of the methodology:
– Initial investment to develop an Enterprise Architecture
– Some Enterprise Architecture assumptions can be hard to satisfy with reasonable costs
– Commitment must be assured for critical issues such as availability of source code and
realistic data for testing
– Production applications may need to be modified to achieve better user-interface results
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25. Conclusions: main contributions
• Semantic framing with the Enterprise
Architecture
– Enterprise Architecture data dictionary
– Make coherent integration decisions
• Effort proportional to problem size
• Long term vision, short term response
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26. Conclusions: future work
• Apply methodology to integration scenarios
from different industries with different
needs and more data, processes and
applications
• Adjust production applications according to
Enterprise Architecture
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27. Questions & Answers
Managers are rarely trained to
optimize the performance of the
organization as a whole, and often are
not given the means to do so (…)
Enterprise systems must be guided by
a shared vision of the objectives.
in Laudon & Laudon (2002)
Thank you for your attention. More information on:
http://mega.ist.utl.pt/~mflpar/integration/download.html 27
2004-05-06 An integration methodology based on the Enterprise Architecture