API strategy a beginners guide

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API’S…?

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MostpeoplearetalkingaboutAPI’s,ofalltypes,arecrea9ngbusinessmodelstoexploitthem(oraretrying)andarelookingtogenerateasignificantamountofrevenuethroughthem.

Itsprobablyimportantatthispointtodifferen9ateinternetfacingAPI’sandpublicAPI’s.

TheAPI’sthatareaErac9ngalotofpressandcorporateaEen9onarepubliclyfacingAPI’sthat3rdpartydevelopers&organisa9onsconsume,andcreatenewbusinessopportuni9esandornewproductsetcusingyourAPI.

Thesebusinessopportuni9esdonotnecessarilyneedtohavea$value.Therearealargenumberwherethereisnorevenuegenerated-buttheseAPI’sdoextendanorganisa9on’sreachorfootprint.

Havingasuccessfuldeveloper/apiportalisconsideredareasonablemeasureofanorganisa9onstechnicalmaturityandthiscanhelpaEracttechtalent.

ARCHITECTURAL MODEL

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Strategic Goal Architecture CapabilityWhy? What? How?

WHY

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WHY

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EverythingstartswithWhy,oratleastshouldstartwithWhy!

Afewques9onstohelpyouunderstandtheWhyofpushinganAPIintothepublicdomaincouldbe…

WhywouldadeveloperwanttoconsumemyAPI…?

WhyamidevelopingthisAPI…?

Whyamigoingtotheeffortof‘pushing’thisAPIintothepublicdomain…?

WHY

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ThisCapitalOneblogthathassomegreatthoughtsaboutthe‘why’ofAPI’s

hEp://www.capitalone.io/blog/inside-out-taking-your-api-public/

ItalsohasareferencetoSimonSinek’stalkonthe‘Why’ofwhyorganisa9onsandpeoplearesuccessful.

IfyoucantanswertheWhy…thenpause…andworkouttheWhy!

WHAT

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GOOD

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• Why understood • Well documented

• Clear instructions on how to invoke • Description of what the developer can expect with examples

• Readonly to start with is better• Not tightly coupled to back end systems• Application Performance Monitoring tool to monitor and visualise

traffic

NOT SO GOOD

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• API Logic in Vendor products• API’s that are both internal and public

• Can be difficult to segregate traffic during production incident for

those just starting on their public API journey • API’s with only 1 or 2 consumers• Poor documentation

ARCHITECTURAL PATTERNS

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HOW

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WHATS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING?

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - HOW?

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Portal

Your public presence.

A place where developers can find information about your API’s.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - HOW?

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Evangelist

Externally facing role.

Someone who actively engages the developer community.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - HOW?

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Status

A page that publishes the state of your API e.g. Active, Degraded, Not Active.

Typically a subset of the portal.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - HOW?

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Forum

An online community to discuss your API’s.

Allows all conversations to be public.

A search resource for developers.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - HOW?

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Blog

Whats happening in your API world…

What worked well and what didn’t?

What do have coming next?

SOME GOOD EXAMPLES TO LOOK AT

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CapitalOnehEps://developer.capitalone.com/products/

BBVAhEps://www.bbvaapimarket.com/web/api_market/

TelstrahEps://dev.telstra.com/

TwiEerhEps://dev.twiEer.com/rest/public

AN EXAMPLE TEAM

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• Business Owner of the API

• Product Owner for the API

• Empowered DevOps - only 1 team required to release API

• How does the maintenance of the Public API ‘work’?

• Is this API the teams sole focus?

• If no, how is the effort to maintain the public API interweaved with the internal effort?

BUDGET / FUNDING

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What budget/time/effort is assigned for public API’s?

Is the funding flexible enough to cope with unpredictable demand?

DONT FORGET THE MVP

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GOTCHA’S

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• Trying to short cut the maturity scale

• Slow is ok

• Dont be tempted to go ‘early’

• Not listening to your community - always have an open channel and someone ‘listening’

• Good internal does not necessarily equal a good external API

• Vendor lockin

andy.mcquarrie@thoughtworks.com@andymcquarrie

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