Incremental Interface Decomposition for Legacy Integration Transition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Transitions in computer integration systems are complex, costly, and risky, often requiring significant expertise and downtime due to the complexity of legacy interfaces, especially in environments like banking, where interoperability and backward compatibility are critical.
Innovation Solution
An incremental transition approach is employed, decomposing existing interface functionalities into smaller services mapped onto a domain-driven design framework, allowing gradual transition and expertise development, with services implemented on a separate computing platform to manage complexity and reduce costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a complete interface transition is performed, then the new implementation can be deployed, but the transition becomes unmanageable due to the large number of consumer applications (e.g., 100 applications) that need to be tested and coordinated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the monolithic interface transition into multiple smaller service transitions. Instead of transitioning all 100 consumer applications simultaneously through a complete interface replacement, the system divides the interface functionality into discrete services that can be transitioned independently. This segmentation makes the transition manageable by reducing the coordination overhead and testing scope for each transition step.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a dynamic transition approach where services are progressively migrated from the legacy interface to the new implementation based on priority and dependency. The transition is not static or all-at-once but evolves over time, allowing the system to adapt to feedback from each transition phase and adjust subsequent migration strategies accordingly.
2Reliability
If extensive testing is performed to ensure compatibility across all consumer applications, then reliability is improved, but the transition time and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the interface into multiple services, the patent reduces the testing scope from validating 100 applications against a complete interface replacement to validating subsets of applications against individual service transitions. This segmentation maintains reliability through targeted testing while significantly reducing the total transition time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by transitioning and testing only the necessary subset of services and applications at each phase rather than performing exhaustive testing of all 100 applications simultaneously. This approach achieves sufficient reliability for each transition step without the prohibitive time cost of complete system-wide testing.
3Reliability
If expertise from multiple domains is coordinated to handle all consumer applications, then the transition quality is improved, but the coordination effort becomes difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the coordination requirement into smaller, domain-specific coordination tasks for each service transition rather than requiring all experts to coordinate on a single large-scale interface transition. This reduces the coordination complexity while maintaining transition quality through focused expertise application.
4Productivity
If the transition is performed without downtime, then service continuity is maintained, but the transition becomes more complex and risky
Solution Approach 1:
By transitioning individual services rather than the complete interface at once, the patent enables shorter, more manageable downtime windows for each service migration. This segmentation reduces the overall transition complexity compared to maintaining continuity across a complete interface replacement, while still preserving service continuity for the majority of applications during each transition step.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and computer readable medium (CRM) for transitioning a computer integration system are disclosed. Illustratively, the method includes providing an integration layer having an interface positioned between a plurality of consumer applications and a plurality of back-end services. The interface is for performing a plurality of functionalities. The method includes providing a target integration scheme to decompose the interface, the target integration scheme comprising a plurality of groupings. For at least one grouping of the plurality of groupings, the method includes providing a service that implements a subset of the plurality of functionalities. The method includes updating the interface to handle requests for the subset via activating the service.