I'm a software developer. Sometimes during our daily meetings we use the verb "integrate". I often hear people saying things like "I integrated this functionality IN the project" or "I integrated this functionality ON the project", etc. I'm confused about how use this verb in this context. What is the correct preposition? Should I use a preposition at all? Maybe another verb? Thanks in advance!
1 Answer
No, those uses would not be ideal (and maybe the speakers you mention aren't really using "integrate" properly). In this definition, the words "into" and "with" show up. I can think of three constructions:
- Integrate A into B
- Integrate A with B
- Integrate A and B
In all cases, "integrate" is a good choice when two things have been combined, "mixed," or "blended" together. If I introduce a new module into the project, requiring me to adjust multiple services and components, it's fair to represent that as "integrating" the module into the project. If I simply pasted a single line, though, there could be better choices of verb. Another legitimate time that I might describe work as "integration" is when the main focus of my work is to relate two pre-existing things to each other. For instance, I build an API, and build a user interface separately, and then integrate the two.
Among other things, sometimes people choose more-impressive or more-formal words to make their work sound more significant. Ultimately, though, this can impede the team effort if it makes it harder to understand what they really did, and perhaps backfire in personal ambition, making their accomplishments harder to immediately understand. In many of these cases it might be better to simply say "I added [this functionality] to [that feature]."
added
would be sometimes a better option.