Review Of The Book Lean Integration: An Integration Factory Approach To Business Agility By John G. Schmidt

Lean integration is not just a one-time thing. It is a long-term plan for an organization on how to approach the challenges of process integration and data integration. First and the foremost point to understand is that Lean integration can be applied to any field of industry and life. By using the lean methodology, a person can avoid excessive fund requirements and complex business plans with a product which might not be perfect but at the same time gives a better opportunity to flourish in the market. The lean integration makes sure that you first come up with a product that works for your customer. One can spend time and effort later to refine the product based on the feedback from the customer. Lean is basically about using resources more effectively. It is about adding value continuously by focusing on what really matters. Lean focuses on preserving value with less work. Integration is the action or practice of making individual applications to work together as a common system on an ongoing basis. There are two types of integration:

Process integration

The process is automated that cuts across functional or application boundaries where the process state is needed to maintain independently the application systems or where multiple data consumers or producers need to be coordinated as a part of the business transaction.

Data integration

Accessing functions and data from different systems to create a combined and consistent view of information for use in the organization to improve the business operations and decisions. Lean Integration is a management system that removes the wastes by practicing data integration and system integration while focusing on continuous improvements and creating value for customers. Lean integration delivers early benefits, but it does not just end there. A lean principle like waste elimination is a never-ending activity that results in ongoing benefits. Here are some of the reasons why lean integration is important in your organization:

Efficiency

Lean integration teams typically realize labor productivity improvements and lead to time reduction through continuous efforts to eliminate non-value-added activities.

Agility

The projects are taken off the critical path by mass customization by using reusable components, automated processes, and self-service delivery models.

Data quality

It is a term used to describe the accuracy, consistency, conformity, completeness of a particular piece or set of data.

Innovation

Enable the members of the organization to test and innovate new ideas by using fact-based problem solving and automating regular integration tasks to give staff time for value-added activities.

Staff morale

Empower cross-functional teams to drive bottom-up improvements by increasing the engagement and motivation of IT staff. It takes time to achieve all of the above benefits, but these are achievable and real.

There are seven Lean Integration Principles that can be applied to the challenges of data, system and application integration in a sustainable fashion. It is targeted at IT leaders and business who will implement it in a Lean Integration program. They are:

Focus on the customer and Eliminate waste

Focus on the customer and use the inputs given by him as the primary driver for the development of integration solutions and services. Waste elimination is related to this principle; Waste contains activities that add value from the supplier’s perspective rather than customer’s opinions.

Continuous improvement

It is the core principle of lean as it focuses on experimentation and learning. There is no perfect way to do something; rather seeking perfection is an ongoing process because there are always opportunities to improve.

Empower the team

Commitments should be shared with the individuals and multifunctional teams and provide them with the support they need for innovation and trying new ideas without fearing the failure.

Plan for change

The plan-for-change principle is based on constantly restructuring components because of the evolving needs of business, market or technology. Apply mass customization techniques to lower the time and cost in a run and build stages of the integration lifecycle.

Optimize the whole

The overall objective is to keep in mind that the continuous improvement efforts and measurements are for the greater good for the long term. We need to understand the big picture of how the value is delivered to the customer and work to optimize the overall process, not just one part of it.

Automate processes and deliver fast

Common manual tasks should be automated with the help of a computer to process vast quantities of data, finding and documenting patterns so that integration developers can work together to construct the best logic.

Build quality in

Building quality in uses all six Lean principles. The Lean approach is to create a system in which the objective is to identify problems at the earliest and immediately stop to fix those problems. Lean focuses on doing it right the first time. Success is not based on forced standards; rather on effective execution. Following are some implementation practices that help to be better, faster, and cheaper by other means.

Financial Management

Tangible assets can be purchased by any company. Intangible assets like software, processes, systems, and training programs represent an actual investment that provides long-term value.

Integration Methodology

The lean integration methodology is concerned with establishing the processes to sustain solutions permanently in a production environment as well as with building quality solutions.

Metadata Management

It is the blueprint describing the data and data processes that enable factory operations and automation. It is documentation about data e.g. where data is located, who can use it, where is it moved and secured, etc.

Information Architecture

Information Architecture is about transforming the business and differentiating it as a whole. It is a discipline that turns data into information by adding semantics.

Business Process Management

It is a holistic management approach of efficiently aligning an organization with the needs of its customers. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency.

Modeling Management

It helps to define, use, and maintain a lot of views of an organization and its data in support of integration strategies.

Integration Systems

It is a discipline for managing, operating, and controlling integration system. It also addresses the need for managing the lifecycle of integration systems.

Conclusion

This book helps the practitioner and IT executive to align the goals and objectives that give long-term value to their enterprise. It also serves as a reminder for us to put the customer at the topmost position as a tool for planning and execution. With the increase in the number of systems in the enterprise, there is an increase in the need for integration. With the help of Lean Integration, an organization can quickly adjust with the constantly evolving business markets.