Data Integration Readiness: A Hands-On Checklist

Great integrations start before a single line of code. Use this checklist to reduce risk and accelerate delivery.

1) Business alignment

• Named sponsor, success metrics, and a clear “why now”.
• Defined consumers of the integrated data and their decisions.

2) Source/target inventory

• APIs, DBs, files; owners; rate limits; schemas and sample data.
• Throughput/latency expectations and volume projections.

3) Mapping and quality

• Field‑level mappings, data types, transforms, and null handling.
• Quality checks: dedupe rules, constraints, anomaly thresholds.

4) Security and compliance

• PII/PHI classification, encryption in transit/at rest, and access roles.
• Audit logging, retention, and data governance contacts.

5) Architecture and operations

• Batch vs. streaming, retry/backoff, idempotency, and error routing.
• Monitoring, alerts, runbooks, and ownership during/after go‑live.

6) Pilot and rollout plan

• Phased environments, test datasets, and performance targets.
• Training, documentation, and a measurable “definition of done”.

Templates to create

• Source/Target registry and owner contact sheet
• Field mapping spreadsheet with transforms
• Quality checks and alert thresholds
• Runbook and escalation paths