Define ownership before the interface
An integration begins with an agreement about information. Establish which system owns each business record, which changes may flow between systems and who resolves a conflict. Discuss the business meaning of a successful exchange, including when the receiving process is ready to act on it.
Design for the incomplete handoff
A connection also needs a clear response when information is missing, a downstream system is unavailable or the same event arrives again. Decide how teams will identify these situations, whether work can safely be retried and who can authorize a correction. Make pending and failed handoffs understandable to the people operating the process.
Keep the connection maintainable
Document interface ownership, business mappings and change dependencies in a form the team can use. When either application changes, review the connected workflow as well as the individual endpoint. Test the expected exchange and the exceptions that matter to the operation. Keep responsibility for support explicit after launch.
Dependable integration includes information ownership, exception handling and a clear support model.