Integration Tools

Though apparently simple,  point-to-point integration is fraught with the following major problems:

• Complexity of combinations: In order to have a point-to-point integration between every pair of n tools, we need n x (n-1) / 2 number of integrations. It thus becomes extremely difficult to create and maintain each individual integration code between the pairs of tools. 
• Handcrafted business integration rules, and replacement dilemma: Business rules of integration are all hardcoded in the integration code. This means that any change in that logic necessitates changes in that code. Any change in code means a full cycle of development, test, and deployment cycle making it impossible to implement even the smallest change quickly.  

Further, replacement of any tool by another tool of same function or even by a new version will involve high effort maintenance of all the integration code for that tool.

Integration tools, based on this approach, have the following major limitations:

• Rip and Replace:The requirement of replacing existing tools by a single vendor tools does not sit well with any development manager.
• One Size Fits All : It is highly unlikely that built-in tools from a single vendor can serve the needs of a wide range of development groups. However, due to the very nature of the solutions, the users are forced to use these tools even when better and often less expensive (sometime free open source) tools are available and appropriate for their needs.
• Technology Islands of Development:Single vendor integration tools create a technology island with little or no chance of working together.

Integration tools, based on the ALM platform approach of multi-vendor tools integration, do away with complex and costly integrations, overcoming the limitations of the above two approaches.

Kovair Omnibus Integration Platform

Kovair Omnibus, based on the ALM platform technology, offers the following benefits: 

For a point-to-point integration between every pair of n tools, we need n x (n-1) / 2 number of integrations. Accordingly, for a simple case of 5 tools, this amounts to 10 integrations and just doubling the number of tools to 10 will result in a 4.5 fold increase in number of integrations to 45. On the contrary, Kovair Omnibus is based on the Enterprise Service Bus-ESB architecture which needs 5 and 10 adapters, just one per tool! Moreover, replacement of one of 5 or 10 tools needs replacement of just one adapter, a far cry from the redevelopment of 4 and 9 integration codes respectively. 

Kovair Omnibus is based on a standard set of web service based APIs. Without any special requirement on the tools, it can integrate tools from different vendors, including internally developed tools. This means all the tool investments by a development organization are protected and enhanced with integrations and the training and familiarity of people using these tools are also protected from an investment perspective. 

Kovair Omnibus allows integration of multiple third party ALM tools from different vendors (for eg. VSTS Designer, Rational ClearQuest , Eclipse Integration, Subversion Integration , TFS Integration, ANT, J Unit, Quick Test Pro, Clarity etc.) for the same function. What is even better, it can support simultaneous usage of multiple tools from multiple vendors in a single tool ecosystem. This allows organizations to select best-of-breed tools available in the market without locking themselves into a single-vendor solution. 

Kovair Omnibus allows creation and management of integration business rules independent of the individual tool adapters. Unlike point-to-point and single-vendor integrations where the logic is hard coded in the integration codes, platform adapters do not have any hard coded embedded business rules and are configurable with mouse clicks.

The central framework of Kovair Omnibus allows creating and managing Traceability relationships between artifacts from multiple (more than a pair of) tools. This is not possible with point-to-point integrations where without a central framework only two tools are integrated at a time. Moreover, due to its flexibility in relationship management, Kovair Omnibus promotes multi-tool proactive and change impact analyses.

Through its built-in process automation capability (Omniprocess Workflow Automation engine) , Kovair Omnibus creates a cross-tools process and automates it for a transparent no-overhead implementation with a much larger success potential. 

Once Kovair Omnibus has all the artifacts and meta information about the artifacts (e.g. not just the Requirement but the information about the Requestor, Type, Priority, Approval status, Approver, Lifecycle status, etc.) in its repository either by replication or federation, you can create all sorts of dashboard metrics and reports for those data in real-time. These reports provide valuable insights about the whole cross-tool process, which is often impossible or difficult to get.