Systems Integration and Architecture Reviewer

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering systems integration, system architecture layers, life cycles (PLC vs. SDLC), modeling standards (DFD, UML, BPMN), architectural patterns, enterprise architecture domains, and middleware.

System

A collection of interconnected components (hardware, software, data, people, and processes) that work together to achieve a specific goal.

Systems Integration

The process of connecting multiple independent systems, applications, databases, or services so they can communicate and function as one unified system.

Data Silos

Information isolated within one department or system that is difficult for other departments or systems across an organization to reach.

System Architecture (ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2022)

The fundamental structure of a system, defined as the fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution.

Zero Trust Model

A security architecture model where no user or device is trusted automatically, requiring continuous identity verification, strict authorization, encryption, audit logging, and threat detection.

Observability (Three Pillars)

A system monitoring capability based on three telemetry pillars: metrics (performance measurements like CPU and memory usage), logs (event records), and traces (tracking a request across services).

Synchronous Communication

A communication method where an immediate response is required from the receiver before processing continues, such as a direct API request.

Asynchronous Communication

A communication method where a request is sent and the response arrives later, allowing the sender to continue processing without waiting (e.g., a message queue).

Project Life Cycle (PLC)

A structured project management framework that manages the whole project across five sequential phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure.

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

A structured framework of six phases used to build, test, deploy, and maintain software within a project: requirements analysis, system design, development (coding), testing, deployment, and maintenance.

Project Charter

A formal document in project initiation that formally authorizes a project, outlining its title, business justification, objectives, budget estimate, major risks, and project manager assignment.

Feasibility Study (5 Types)

An initiation assessment that evaluates technical, economic, operational, legal, and schedule feasibility to determine whether a project can realistically be executed.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A hierarchical planning tool that splits the total scope of a project into smaller, manageable tasks and deliverable-oriented work packages.

Requirements Modeling

The practice of documenting, analyzing, and visualizing what a system must do before it is built to ensure alignment across business analysts, stakeholders, and developers.

Use Case Diagram

A behavioral UML diagram that visualizes how users interact with a system by illustrating actors, use cases (services), and system boundaries.

Data Flow Diagram (DFD)

A graphical modeling tool that illustrates how information moves through a system via four components: external entities, processes, data flows, and data stores.

DFD Level 0 (Context Diagram)

The highest-level data flow diagram that represents the entire system as a single process (Process 0), displaying external entities and major inputs/outputs without showing internal data stores.

Functional Decomposition

The process of breaking down a high-level system or process into smaller, detailed subprocesses across progressive DFD levels (Level 0 to Level 1, Level 2, and beyond).

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

An international standard modeling language used to visualize, specify, construct, and document the structural components and behavioral workflows of software systems.

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)

A graphical modeling standard used to document, visualize, and improve business processes using flow objects, connecting objects, swimlanes, and artifacts.

Swimlane (Pool vs. Lane)

A BPMN organizational mechanism where a Pool represents an entire participating entity/organization and a Lane represents a specific role or department within that Pool.

Architectural Pattern

A proven, reusable structural solution to a commonly occurring software design problem that provides best practices and standard organizations for system components.

Layered Architecture

An architectural pattern where an application is split into specialized horizontal layers (Presentation, Business, Data access, and Database), with requests flowing downward from top to bottom.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

The central integration and communication hub in a Service-Oriented Architecture that handles message routing, protocol transformation, security enforcement, and service orchestration.

Service Registry

A central catalog in SOA where service descriptions, endpoints, versions, and access policies are published so consumers can discover and invoke them.

Microservices Architecture

An architectural pattern that divides an application into small, independent services, each focused on one business capability, possessing its own database, and deployable separately.

API Gateway

The single entry point for client requests in a microservices architecture that handles request routing, authentication, authorization, rate limiting, and load balancing.

Service Discovery

An automated networking mechanism in microservices architecture that allows services to locate one another dynamically without relying on hardcoded network endpoints.

Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)

An architectural pattern in which decoupled components communicate asynchronously by producing, brokering, and consuming events that represent significant system occurrences.

Enterprise Architecture (EA)

A structured blueprint and discipline that aligns an organization's business goals, processes, data, applications, and technology to ensure all components collaborate to meet strategic targets.

BDAT Domains

The four core domains of Enterprise Architecture: Business architecture (strategy/processes), Data architecture (information/governance), Application architecture (systems/services), and Technology architecture (platforms/infrastructure).

Current State (As-Is) vs. Target State (To-Be)

As-Is describes the baseline operational reality, pain points, and limitations of an organization today; To-Be defines the desired future condition and architectural capabilities.

Gap Analysis

An evaluation technique that compares the As-Is state to the To-Be state to determine what capabilities, processes, applications, or technologies must be created, modified, integrated, or retired.

EA Roadmap

A time-sequenced strategic implementation plan outlining the projects, work packages, dependencies, and transition states required to reach the target architecture.

Architecture Vision

A high-level artifact establishing the scope, proposed target direction, constraints, stakeholder expectations, and value proposition that serves as the shared basis for detailed architecture work.

Business Capability

A stable, high-level ability an enterprise needs to achieve a business outcome, named using business nouns (e.g., 'Enrollment Management') rather than project or technical names.

Architecture Decision Record (ADR)

A governance document recording a key architectural choice, including the context, drivers, options considered, selected option rationale, positive/negative consequences, and risk mitigations.

Digitization vs. Digitalization vs. Digital Transformation

Digitization converts analog information into digital format; digitalization improves existing tasks using digital tools; digital transformation fundamentally redesigns operating models, capabilities, and value delivery.

Transition Architecture

An intentional intermediate architectural state between current and target states that keeps business operations viable while long-term capabilities, skills, and systems evolve.

Middleware

Software sitting between applications and services that handles integration tasks such as routing, message transformation, security, reliability, observability, and workflow orchestration.

REST (Representational State Transfer)

An architectural style commonly used over HTTP that is resource-oriented (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), leverages lightweight JSON payloads, and relies on OpenAPI contracts.

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

An operation-oriented messaging protocol using structured XML envelopes, formal WSDL contracts, and WS-* enterprise standards for highly regulated transactions.