Start with the operational question.
Identify the decision or workflow the integration must support. A machine-state display, an inspection record and a material-consumption event have different information and timing requirements. Capture that purpose before assembling a tag list.
Give every important field a definition.
Record equipment identity, event or record identity, units, timestamp meaning and the source of the value. Include permitted values and how missing or invalid information should be represented. A value with no context is difficult to interpret after it leaves the machine.
Agree ownership and acknowledgement.
Identify the source of truth and the point at which a receiving system has accepted a record. Decide how duplicate events, corrections and rejected records are reconciled. Sending a message and confirming that it has been applied are different events.
Test the interrupted connection.
Include lost connections, restarts, repeated delivery and unavailable receiving systems in the acceptance discussion. Agree what can be buffered, what must remain local and what an operator should see during recovery.
Bring these decisions into the brief.
- Operational purpose and required timing
- Source system and record ownership
- Equipment, event and record identities
- Units, permitted values and timestamp definitions
- Missing, stale and invalid-data behaviour
- Acknowledgement, duplicate and correction handling
- Access, retention and change responsibilities
This note is a project-planning aid. It does not establish product support, performance, certification or regulatory compliance.