According to Cresswell and Connelly (1999), the design of information architectures and applications requires clear and highly-detailed knowledge of specific procedures that generate or use criminal justice information. Successful organizations have this highly detailed knowledge about their business processes and a solid understanding of the reasons why they are engaging in integration projects. Each of the initiatives demonstrated a good understanding of their own processes as well as the processes of their partners. They used the work of building this understanding to identify and highlight organizational similarities and differences. For example, they were able to identify how a single data element was viewed and used differently by different agencies, and even by different units within a single agency. Process analysis efforts allowed integration teams to reduce complexity by making the processes of each agency explicit.

Delaware staff talked to every user of the system to understand their needs and have a clear picture of the processes of the different agencies involved in the initiatives. These efforts also resulted in the shared understanding for how each process supports or does not support the shared goal of the integration effort and the specific and appropriate goals of each individual agency.