
List evaluation criteria and assign weights tied to business outcomes. Include schema fit, protocol alignment, SDK maturity, testability, support responsiveness, and failure modes. Keep the rubric visible and versioned. A clear matrix turns heated debates into collaborative prioritization, helping teams separate must‑have requirements from nice‑to‑have features that can wait without jeopardizing core integration reliability.

Use vendor sandboxes, mock servers, and synthetic data to run compatibility spikes. Automate smoke tests, sample flows, and migration drills. Measure developer ergonomics, debugging clarity, and documentation accuracy. The fastest path to insight is running code that breaks at the edges, because those cracks reveal whether your integration will sustain real traffic, evolving schemas, and shifting operational constraints.
Compare event‑driven messaging with synchronous APIs based on latency budgets, coupling tolerance, and failure recovery needs. Consider outbox patterns, replay safety, and consumer idempotency. Align your choice with visibility requirements and backpressure strategies. A deliberate flow model avoids fragile choreography, reduces coordination overhead, and keeps integration contracts stable even as features, volumes, and teams expand.
Evaluate API gateways for authentication, rate limiting, schema validation, and transformation policies. Consider iPaaS for low‑code mapping, scheduling, and cross‑vendor connectors. Define boundaries that prevent business logic from hiding in glue. Compatibility thrives when you centralize policy enforcement, observe flows consistently, and keep the integration layer opinionated yet lightweight, enabling faster changes without sprawling complexity.
Select patterns that match data velocity and correctness needs: webhooks, Change Data Capture, scheduled pulls, or hybrid approaches. Design deduplication, watermarking, and reconciliation jobs. Handle late events, out‑of‑order delivery, and soft deletes intentionally. By shaping synchronization around real drift scenarios, you prevent mysterious discrepancies and midnight incidents triggered by subtle, compounding inconsistencies.