Designing-in-the-large: Combining local perspectives to generate enterprise-wide integration solutions

Abstract

Local perspectives are important in designing effective enterprise integration solutions because they provide deep understanding of how each system may interact with others. Combining these local perspectives into a global solution is, however, equally important to develop a coherent enterprise integration blueprint. The participants in this exercise tend to be managers who have local but informal knowledge, and designers who may have a global but incomplete view that must be translated into formal models necessary for implementation. We develop a method and supporting modeling constructs aimed at such 'designing-in-the-large' that facilitates this bridging from local perspectives to global solutions, and from informal representations to formal models amenable for implementation. We present the result as design science outcomes - a Method and Modeling Constructs - that have benefited from multiple design-and-test cycles, and describe an authentic demonstration. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.