Synthesizing system integration requirements model fragments

Systems integration is an enduring issue in organizations. Many organizations have often been faced with the predicament of managing large and complex IT infrastructures accumulated over the years. Before proposing suitable integration architecture and selecting appropriate implementation solutions, a holistic and clear understanding of the enterprise-wide integration requirements among various internal and external systems is needed. This paper builds on prior literature on conceptual modelling of integration requirements to present an algorithm that synthesizes model fragments, i.e., piecemeal sections of the integration requirements. The details of the algorithm, for synthesizing two or more model fragments into a single integration requirements model, are detailed in this paper. An empirical assessment of the algorithm's generated integration solution is made by comparing it against that performed manually.