There are various practices that can be used for successful integration of the system. Some of the best practices which can be taken in to an account in this case comprises of approach for systems development, strategy for migration, approach to use in implementation, and requests for proposals. This paper elaborates on the two best practices which is the SDLC and the implementation approach chosen for this case.
One of the best practice of system integration approach is the use of system development life cycle (SDLC). The SDLC is divided into traditional and agile methods. First, it is true that bugs is the greatest enemy that should be overcome during system integration. The agile method, therefore, supports system integration by reducing the rates of errors or bugs that can occur when two or more modules of the system are joined together. The agile method also support integration by promoting communication over documentation which reduces the complexity of the system. Agile also has low cost of integration with testing done after every iteration. It is more suitable for the integration of low to medium sized projects. The traditional method such as the waterfall supports integration of heavyweight systems or projects since they are based on sequential series of steps like the definition of requirements, solution building, testing along with development. The sequential approach together with testing helps in the easy way of identifying error and bugs that may show up during integration process of large systems (Leau et al., 2012). User involvement at every stage of integration is a good ethical practice that can positively affect the successful result of integration. A good example of system is the payroll system which can be treated as medium sized project which can be integrated using the agile method of SDLC foe successful implementation.
The implementation approach is another practice of integrating the system. This approach is divided into top down integration and implementation, bottom up integration and implementation and the mixed integration and implementation.The top down method of this approach is simpler to use since it permits the integration to start from the top of system design where the basic principles are found. This makes it easier to follow, identify and correct bugs that comes up during the process of joining different system modules. The bottom up approach may not be simple to use since it begins from the high level and comprehensive part of details, making it hard to deal with errors. However, the mixed method may appear to be ideal in this case as it combines both top down and bottom up, enabling it to take the advantages from that can be derived from the two methods of integration and implementation (Rosenheck et al., 2014).
References
Leau, Y. B., Loo, W. K., Tham, W. Y., & Tan, S. F. (2012). Software development life cycle AGILE vs traditional approaches. In International Conference on Information and Network Technology (Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 162-167).
Rosenheck, R. A., Lam, J., Morrissey, J. P., Calloway, M. O., Stolar, M., & Randolph, F. (2014). Service systems integration and outcomes for mentally ill homeless persons in the ACCESS program. Psychiatric services.
