Benefits you can expect from careful integration:
1. Easier defect diagnosis
2. Fewer defects
3. Less scaffolding
4. Shorter time to first working product
5. Shorter overall development schedules
6. Improved moral
7. Better customer relations
8. Improved chance of project completion
9. More reliable schedule estimates
10. More accurate status reporting
11. Improved code quality
12. Less documentation
Phased integration
1. Design, code, test and debug each class. This step is call "unit development".
2. Combine the classes into one whopping-big system, This is called "system integration".
3. Test and debug the whole system. This is called "system dis-integration".
One problem with phased integration is that when the classes in a system are put together for the first time, new problems inevitably surface and the causes of the problem could be any where. The culprit might be a poorly tested classes, an error in the interface between two classes, or an error caused by interaction between classes.
Incremental integration
1. Develop a small, functional part of the system. thoroughly test and debug it. It will servea as a skeleton on which to hang the muscles, nerves and skin that make up the remaining parts of the system.
2. Design, code, test and debug a class.
3. Integrat the new class with the skeleton. Test and debug the combination of skeleton and new class.
Benifis of incremental integration
1. Errors are easy to locate.
2. The system succeeds early in the project.
3. You get improved progress monitoring.
4. You'll improve customer relations.
5. The units of the system are tested more fully.
6. You can build the system with a shorter development schedule.
Incremental intergration strategies.
1. Top-down integration
In top-down integration, the class at the top of the hierarchy is written and integrated first. The top is the main window, the application control loop, the object that contains main() in Java, WinMain() for Microsoft windows programming. Stub have to be written to exercise the top class. Then,as classes are integrated from the top down, stub classes aare replaced with real ones.
2. Bottom-up integration
In bottom-up integration, you write and integrate the classes at the bottom of the hierarchy first.
3. Sandwich integration
You first integrate the high-level business at the top of the hierarchy, then you integrate the device-interface classes and widely used utility classes at the bottom.
4. Risk-oriented integration
You identify the level of risk associated with each class. You decide which will be the most challenging parts to implement, and you implement them first.
5. Feature-oriented integration.