The Integrated Way To Success: Different Practices For Software Product Integration

The basic idea of software product integration is to integrate all the separate components, combining them for a bigger working system. Reports say that the data integration tools market will grow to $2.2 billion by the year 2010. Product integration software solves the critical business problems for a company having various external interactions and systems that are used by customers and stakeholders to complete multiple processes.

There are various practices, standards and models being followed in the software product integration market. Some of the best practices and models are discussed below:

• ISO/IEC 12207:
The main objective of ISO/IEC 12207 is to provide the software market with a guideline for software life cycle process. It contains the various processes, tasks and models that constitute a software life cycle and thus help in the planning, development, operation and maintenance of the software products. It also gives valuable guide for the acquisition, purchase and supply of the software products, services and systems. ISO/IEC 12207 consists of two parts. The first part is all about integration of software units or components into specific software items that can be integrated into a bigger system. Second part consists of system integration tasks, to integrate the software into the system and testing its viability.
• IEEE Std 1220-1998:
IEEE Std 1220-1998 provides comprehensive guidelines for the software product development companies for careful planning of product development, operation, maintenance and disposal stages of a product. It also considers health and environmental risks. System integration and testing is one of the main components of IEEE Std 1220-1998.
• EIA-632:
The main objective of this standard is to provide software developers an overview of processes that assist in engineering a system. The use of this standard would enable development of requirements to enable delivery (of systems and solutions) in a cost-effective and timely way. The various practices mentioned here guide the developers to plan and execute tasks so as to retain interest of all the stakeholders.
• CMMI, version 1.1:
CMMI or Capability Maturity Model Integration focuses on the best practices for product and systems engineering. The model includes areas covering the full product life cycle and for product development, maintenance and operation. CMMI aims at process improvement and optimum utilization of resources. CMMI focuses on product integration, interface comparability and assembling of the products and services to get optimum results.

Software product integration is the latest industry buzzword to achieve that sustainable revenue and growth and it is going to gain importance in coming years.