Measuring Software Integration Effort: Identifying Factors Affecting Integration of Software Systems

This paper investigates the key challenges affecting the software integration success. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to statistically derive significant factors that impact system integration. The analysis was done based on ten aspects of system integration challenges derived from literature and interviews. The study was conducted in Sri Lanka using qualitative and quantitative tools. Ten aspects of integration challenges were divided into three groups, namely Pre Integration challenges; Ongoing integration challenges; and Post integration challenges. The resulting measurement model could be used by software vendors to assess the effort required for software integration in projects.