System Transformation Portal

Enterprise application integration (EAI) has emerged as the latest information management trend. Unfortunately, a typical EAI scenario is likely to focus on near-term integration tactics and ignore long-term integration strategies. As trends go, EAI is one of the better ones to emanate from software vendors and trade rags in recent years because it is driven by real, immediate business requirements. Gaining leverage from this particular trend, however, requires blending near-term EAI tactics with ongoing support requirements and long-term information integration strategies.

EAI identifies and links user workflow and application functions through sophisticated message queuing and Web-based technologies. EAI tools identify, capture, integrate, and deliver data and system functionality to users under a series of cross-functional, multiplatform interfaces. Message queuing technologies from various vendors have matured to the point where they can support the integration of these functions without major retooling of complex legacy environments.

The end result of tactical EAI efforts, particularly if taken to an extreme, would make Rube Goldberg proud. Don’t get me wrong, deploying pragmatic solutions to business integration requirements is a necessity for many companies, but underlying legacy architectures remain largely unchanged under a typical EAI scenario. This means that order processing, procurement, supply chain, fulfillment, billing, and other critical functionality remain fragmented.

To achieve core architecture integration over the long-term, companies must synchronize short-term EAI solutions with long-term integration plans. This requires capturing and redeploying the intelligence gained from tactical EAI projects in a knowledge base that can be employed by system support teams. However, before companies can address this challenge, they must first recognize that the current incarnation of EAI is an interim trend that requires synchronization with a wide range of IT initiatives.

The EAI Trend

Information technology trends run in four-year cycles. Fourth generation languages ran from 1980-1984, software reengineering ran from 1984-1988, ICASE (integrated computer-aided software engineering) ran from 1986-1990, client/server ran from 1990-1994, ERP ran from 1994-1998, and Y2000 ran from 1996-2000. There have been overlapping trends in between, and elements of each trend continue to impact IT today. ERP, for example, will be with us for a long time. But most of these technologies have been eclipsed by other technologies or have become background noise.

EAI, in its current incarnation, is likely to be a 2000-2004 trend. Integration demands, driven by competition, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, technological advancements, the Internet, and other factors will escalate in coming years. When these business dynamics shift, core application architectures will need to shift in kind. As core architectures evolve, today’s EAI solutions and e-business interfaces will need to be retooled. Ultimately, this retooling process will need to employ new technologies to rework front-ends, interfaces, and legacy system architectures.

Business and system architecture dynamics are not the only EAI challenges management must address. Depending on the depth of EAI penetration, these technologies could introduce a maze of convoluted, indecipherable links to legacy systems. Complicating matters is the fact that much of the EAI technology used to integrate disparate data, applications, and platforms has not been tested under long-term system support scenarios. Given these circumstances, IT should be careful not to introduce technologies that could make existing information architectures less responsive to business dynamics.

Today’s EAI solutions are not the final answer to integration challenges, but they do offer immediate value to companies seeking back-end integration to support e-business and priority projects. The benefits of EAI can extend beyond near-term back-end integration. Long-term integration planning projects and system support teams can leverage EAI solutions — but management must drive these seemingly divergent initiatives under a coordinated strategy.

EAI and the Maintenance Challenge

In a worst-case EAI scenario, systems support personnel struggle under a spider web of EAI technology, unable to respond to future integration demands. For this reason, tactical EAI solutions must be documented, and this documentation should be incorporated into ongoing maintenance support projects. EAI implementation teams will need to research and document business processes, application data, system functions, queued messages, and Web-based front-ends on an ongoing basis. The intelligence gathered during this process can be turned into a knowledge base for system support teams.

Consider a major EAI project involving the implementation of message queuing/Web-based solutions. One team documents user workflow requirements and transforms these into new e-business designs, while a second team determines how legacy data and functionality support these new designs. A data warehouse team might develop an integrated data model, bringing together highly distributed data in support of critical e-business functions. An interface design team would craft and deploy message queuing capabilities using EAI tools that offer intelligent rules-based message routing and content transformation.

As this effort proceeds, analysts should document all interfaces created between legacy environments and e-business front-ends in a systems knowledge base. Using this knowledge base on maintenance support projects will allow companies to more effectively manage change. System support requirements are a constant in the IT world and require an understanding of how modifying one component impacts other components. This knowledge base allows maintenance support personnel to avoid unintended ripple effects on future system upgrade projects.

Creating a systems knowledge base should be a standard task within an EAI project. This requires analysts to load existing business processes and system meta-data into the knowledge base along with new workflow requirements and EAI interfaces implemented along the way. This knowledge base, which can be implemented in any standard repository model or database, represents relationships between user interfaces, message queuing technologies, and legacy system environments. Analysts should consider an approach in which transactions managed through an EAI solution are dynamically updated in the systems knowledge base. This ensures that the dynamics of an EAI environment are documented as it evolves.

Documenting EAI projects offers valuable insights to maintenance support personnel trying to assess how a change request impacts certain data, functions, user interfaces, and other components. EAI teams have a choice. They can allow EAI solutions to evolve unchecked or create a knowledge base of information about the legacy environment and EAI solutions that provides maintenance support personnel with the intelligence needed to effectively manage these environments.

 EAI and Strategic Integration Initiatives

Beyond the maintenance benefits derived from well-documented EAI solutions, deliverables from these projects can be leveraged by core architecture integration projects. Companies must recognize the need for long-term integration, particularly as this need is driven by business dynamics that can outpace existing EAI technologies.

A strategic integration plan requires understanding both business and information integration requirements and legacy systems functionality. Existing data elements and functionality are typically defined in a highly redundant manner across a variety of legacy platforms and applications: the challenge that drove tactical EAI demands in the first place. The ultimate goal with strategic integration is to streamline, integrate, and migrate legacy environments into a cohesive architecture, resilient to evolving fragmentation. One option is to target a component-based development environment, a strategy that provides true integration and ultimate flexibility over the long-term.

EAI projects provide an excellent capability to transfer knowledge to the strategic integration planning team. Strategic initiatives require business planners and system architects to work with EAI teams to determine how interim deliverables can support long-term projects. Management should ensure that team integration is addressed as a high priority.

Team integration requires system architects, business analysts, component-based development experts, and EAI project leaders to coordinate efforts to ensure a seamless transition to tomorrow’s integration strategy. Unless executives drive this process, these efforts will lack cohesiveness and will ultimately fail. The previously discussed systems knowledge base becomes the common means for sharing tactical and strategic integration meta-data for systems planning, development, and ongoing support teams.

Once implemented, EAI solutions can offer operational insights to strategic integration planning teams. Tracking transactions as they flow through e-business environments allows strategic planning teams to determine how specific functions are used. Ultimately, EAI message-queuing technologies will need to give way to new technologies in which the reuse of components spans platforms and business unit boundaries. Capturing and analyzing e-business transactions facilitates the fine-tuning of target architectures that will utilize these component-based technologies.

Using the system knowledge base to support the transition to a component-based development paradigm presents a major opportunity for companies today. The process of integrating existing EAI projects with near- and long-term requirements must begin now, or companies could find themselves at a dead end.

Today’s EAI solutions can offer real and lasting value to ongoing maintenance support teams and provide a foothold for long-term integration planning efforts. While EAI solutions are not the end goal for corporate integration teams, they offer businesses more than a stop-gap solution. Synchronize EAI efforts with tactical and strategic initiatives, and you will take the first step in a journey toward more effective management of your information assets.