An integration readiness checklist for business systems

Name the records and direction of travel

“Connect our systems” is not yet a scope. Identify which record moves, what triggers the transfer, which system owns it and how quickly the update is needed. Separate creation, correction and deletion rules.

Verify access before promising the connection

Ask the system owner for current documentation and a test environment. Provider capabilities and commercial access can change, so confirm them during discovery.

• Supported API or import/export method and account eligibility.
• Authentication, permissions and credential owner.
• Required fields, identifiers and data formats.
• Usage limits, availability expectations and charges.
• A permitted sample record and sandbox access.

Design for interruptions and duplicates

Decide how repeated events are recognised, failed updates retried and conflicts reviewed. An illustrative invoice sync must not create two invoices because the sender retried after a timeout. Keep traceable source and destination references.

Plan reconciliation and support

Specify how the team finds mismatched records and who investigates. Test normal updates, invalid records, expired access and temporary provider failure. Include backfilling historical data separately if required.