Learning from a Big-Bang Integration Failure in a Distributed Reactive System: An xOps Industry Case Study
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Large-scale reactive systems developed by multiple organizations are particularly vulnerable to late integration, i.e., Big-bang, where hidden architectural and operational mismatches had only been revealed at the final system assembly. The paper reports on an industry experience of a one-year multi-partner project that failed due to delayed integration, limited observability, and insufficient environment parity. From an architecture-operation perspective, we analyze the causes, highlighting how the system behaviors are undermined. Based on the analysis, we describe Integractor, an actor-centric, messagedriven early-integration approach that combines standardized control APIs, mock-first development, and broker-based communication to enable continuous system integration across distributed teams. Furthermore, we evaluated the approach using scenario-based architectural analysis and a simulated integration environment that reflects realistic operational constraints. Importantly, from this failure we derive a set of practical lessons learned to embed xOps concerns directly into architectural design decisions.
Institution: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7203464643