One of my favorite terms in tech is “integration”. It’s not my favorite because I build them, or because of what they can do, or because of the technical complexity.  It’s my favorite because everyone uses it to mean something different, and like many terms, the range of differences can be immense.

Further, the cost of misunderstanding the intended use can result in turning down projects, to complete failures, to incredible amounts of overengineering. It’s a loaded term - and one that I have a lot of fun unpacking.

Wait, what’s an integration?

We live in a world with lots of computers and different systems (citation needed). Many times, any given system can house all the information or processing it needs - but in many other cases they have to talk to other systems.

To me an integration is anything that allows two systems to pass or share data. An API is an integration. A CSV being emailed is an integration. An XML file being passed to an AWS bucket is an integration. A human typing information from one computer into another is a (bad) integration.

In an ideal state we never know there’s an integration - the system just works. If we’re aware of them it’s likely through some kind of login (e.g. having to log into your bank account to pay a bill), but after that we never think about it.

Here’s an example - in order to get your paycheck, your company must have a system that integrates with their bank. This integration tells their bank to send your pay to your bank.Those banks are integrated to share information, and your bank has an integration with your mobile app so you can view your balance. This represents AT LEAST 3 integrations, although many more are likely involved.

OK so what does that mean

Since this term means so many things to so many people, one of the first things I do when I hear someone use that word is to ask them to describe what they mean. This generally isn’t the first thing they think I’ll ask, so it can take a moment, but it’s one of the most important questions for me to clarify.

This is important as the answer can have wildly different impacts on a project. For example I was once asked to integrate an HR system with a third party’s Learning Management System (LMS). They asked our team to “provide an integration passing employee data” - to which our team said “sure, that will take 3-4 months to develop and test.

This timeline didn’t work for the third party and risked losing a contract.  So, I asked a few questions, and after about 5 minutes of talking learned that all they needed was a CSV file with 5 specific columns of data.  I asked our team if this was possible and they said yes - and a week later we were up and running.

This is what makes talking about tech, and integrations so challenging - the slightest misunderstanding or misconception about what is meant can result in massive impacts to a group or project.

Over the years I’ve started to pull together a list of different types of integrations to help me understand what is needed.  Check it out below, and let me know what you think!