Best Practices for Integration Building
The best practices for integration building include building with a purpose, organizing a flow for easy maintenance, and offering support for your integration.
Integration Purpose
Functional Requirements Met
Verify that the integration addresses the entire scope as defined by the integration definition. Object mappings called out in the Integration Product Scope section are achieved.
All Processing Scenarios Result in Intended Business Outcome or Messaging
Clearly define execution outcomes. Well-thought-out and communicated execution outcomes will result in an integration that is easier to onboard, support and maintain. Communicating both the expected output and failed or terminated execution is critical to those supporting the integration, and therefore should be handled with intent.
Maintenance and Organization
Features
Features should be broken up in a manner that best supports sales and onboarding. It is common to have core flows and services that will always be sold with the integration. Often those are grouped together with optional flows grouped separately so they can be activated separately. You can also consider splitting up flows based on the directionality of the data.
Configurations
Configurations should have descriptive titles and descriptions. Use groups to combine configurations by feature or connector.
Flows
Each feature contains the flows necessary to perform its function. If a flow is shared by multiple features, add it to each feature as App Xchange will only add the flow once to a workspace regardless of how many features use it.
Services
Each feature contains the services necessary to perform its function. If a service is shared by multiple features, add it to each feature as App Xchange will only add the service once to a workspace regardless of how many features use it.
Schedules
Cadence is appropriate based on the services and flows contained in the schedule. The name of the schedule should focus on its action, not the frequency (for example, Data for Sync).
Support
Document Configurations And Features
This is an expansion of what is documented in the integration design template discussed during onboarding.
Configurations should be documented for how they are expected to be used, where the information for the value should come from, and if they are required. For example, take the perspective of training a new support person. What would you want them to know, and what information would set them up for success?
Feature documentation should inform what the feature does, how it’s meant to be used, and how it ties into the integration as a whole.
Onboarding Documentation
The onboarding documentation is meant as a playbook of sorts for an implementation consultant. This could include a step-by-step process, feature dependencies, or order of operations. It is often necessary when onboarding to run schedules and cache writes to seed data, and the order of cache writing data matters. This is the place to call out those issues.
Support Documentation
The support documentation is meant for post go-live support of your customers. Common support issues and resolutions should be documented here to set up your support department for success.
Consistent Patterns and Naming Conventions Used
Use consistent naming patterns throughout your integration. This will enhance the readability and supportability of your product. Flows and steps allow many characters and even emojis.
Flows
Consider naming flows with the convention <feature><source system><source object><operation> to <target system><target object><operation> to create a quick glance at how the data is being moved (erpCompanies : Vista HQ Company Parameters (CUD) to ProjectSight Erp Companies (CUD)).
If you have many flows that have lengthy names, the flow list will look like a wall of text and make it difficult to find what you are looking for.
Steps
Consider naming steps with the convention <action><system><object> (Lookup Vista Job or Update Vista Employee). Avoid shorthand if possible. Steps are referenced by the Step ID visible below each step name. The flow tooling will auto-generate the unique ID.
Outcome Messages
Consistent formatting of success and failure messages makes it easier to support an integration. Consider the target of your messaging as well. More technical messages are fine for internal users or Support teams, but probably not as helpful if your integration is used by a customer.