As developers, we all get rapidly convinced that a platform, developed with a REST API, is the best way to empower software. However, it can become difficult to transform this into real added value for a piece of software, a product or the company itself. Driving the platform construction as a designer or as an architect involves seeing further than just software: this is about the whole organizations and even our society.

1. The Platform Era
7 steps to a great API
Aline Paponaud

2. About me
• Aline Paponaud, CTO at
• 8 years a developer
• Passionate about software & organizations
• Building a Platform
“The platform Era”: a whitepaper I wrote at Sfeir
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3. The Platform Era
1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations
2. What we did at ONprint
3. 7 steps to a great API
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4. 1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations
2. What we did at ONprint
3. 7 steps to a great API
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5. The story begins
5
t

6. “I want SAAS software… You
know, it’s so Silicon Valley.”
Manu, cool entrepreneur
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7. “Let’s be the new Uber for
<insert business case here>”
Jean-Michel, innovation manager
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8. Marketing Team: A connected world
8Image Source: https://datafloq.com/read/how-big-will-the-internet-of-things-be/523

9. Dev Team: A Web API
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10. Dev Team: A REST Web API
Service:
GetWeatherByUserAndCity?u=nico&c=grenoble
Resource:
GET users/nico/cities/geneve/weather
GET weather?u=nico&c=grenoble
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11. 11
Public Web APIs

12. Public Web APIs
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13. We all say the same thing
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14. From vertical to horizontal
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15. 1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations
2. What we did at ONprint
3. 7 steps to a great API
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16. One use case
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17. Another one…
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18. Losing control
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19. The solution
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20. Lessons learned
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21. 1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations
2. What we did at ONprint
3. 7 steps to a great API
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22. 7 steps
1. Share a vision
2. Prepare the team
3. Learn
4. Identify Resources
5. Customer Driven Development
6. Build the back-end
7. Design the front-ends
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23. Step 1: Share a vision
23Image Source: http://www.kolibree.com/fr

24. Step 2: Prepare the team
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25. Step 3: Learn
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GET
PUT
POST
DELETE

26. Step 4: Identify Resources
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27. 27
Step 5: Customer Driven Dev

28. Step 6: Build the back-end
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29. Step 7: Design
the front-ends
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30. 7 steps
1. Share a vision 
2. Prepare the team 
3. Learn 
4. Identify Resources 
5. Customer Driven Development 
6. Build the back-end 
7. Design the front-ends 
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31. Selling a Platform
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32. It’s bigger than us
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33. Thank you
Questions?
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34. References
• R. Fielding, Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures, 2000
• M. Fowler, Richardson Maturity Model, 2010
• R. Fielding, UC Irvine et al., Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTP/1.1, 1999
• J. Barthe, Introduction à HATEOAS, 2013
• A. Osmani, Patterns for Large-Scale JavaScript Application Architecture, 2011
• D. Hardt, The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework
• A. Dsouza, J. Kabbedijk et al., Software-as-a-service : Implications for business and technology in
product software companies, PACIS 2012 Proceedings Pacific Asia Conference on Information,
2012
• D. Durkee, Why cloud computing will never be free, Communications of the ACM, v.53 n.5, 2010
• L. Murphy, SAAS Pricing Strategy : The 10x Rule, 2012
• B. Iyer, M. Subramaniam, The Strategic Value of APIs, 2015
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