Great APIs are made by skilled humans working together using a great business-oriented method. There is no one absolutely correct design for an API which would fit all needs. But there needs to be a method that reminds those designing the API about what they need to consider and starts with the API consumer needs.
APIOps Cycles is openly licensed set of tools and methods for designing API Management compatible APIs with Clear business orientation and best practice architecture patterns.
This talk tells how companies have used it and what benefits they have seen in using this method.
2. @mniinioja
Marjukka Niinioja
• Founding partner of Osaango.com
• Consulted, trained or advised 200 companies
and public organizations on APIs,
microservices, integrations and Developer
experience
• Created method for API development
• Co-authored a TOP 5 book to fast track API
Economy, specially in Finland
3. @mniinioja
Amount of APIs
correlates with
Global Startup
Index and
economic growth
areas.
APIs thrive in
cultures where
user-centered
design is
dominant.
4. @mniinioja
Customer experience
specialists
Marketing, sales
and purchases
responsibles
Business IT
specialists
Integration
specialists
Cloud
infrastructure
specialists
Partnership and
new business
developers
Information
security and
privacy specialists
APIs need the whole village: Marjukka Niinioja & Jarkko Moilanen 2018. From book: API-talous 101, Alma Talent
API = All People are Important
6. @mniinioja
Hit the wall as
fast as you can
REAL STORY ABOUT PROJECT LEEWAY WITH AND
WITHOUT THE METHOD
7. @mniinioja
Difference in using API Consumer
interviews and Prototyping
6 month project time line
The “Oh s**t, they can’t use the API like this” -moment
✓
⛔
8. @mniinioja
Minimum Viable API Architecture
Prototype
Just enough
Scale
API Audit Checklist collects all the rookie mistakes
usually done with designing APIs, even by otherwise
experienced developers.
It’s great for improving the Developer Experience,
security, metrics and API mgmt adoption. And helps in
onboarding newbie API developers
9. @mniinioja
POST /add
POST /del
Hand-written
documentation
200 attributes for payload “just
because we have them”
Sensitive information in URI and
Query parameters
When we get new API users, we need to boot our servers
to give them access
“Basic auth is just fine”Not validating
specfiles
It’s a technical jungle out there…
10. @mniinioja
Build the
API – the
right way
AUDIT CHECKLIST WAS
DEVELOPED WHEN MOST
APIS FAILED IN PUBLISHING
OR DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE
11. @mniinioja
Release both API
interface and code
which implements it
Monitor API
performance, code,
developer experience &
business metrics
Configure API interface,
management & code
environment
Create, verify and
package API interface &
code which implements
it
Plan API business
model, API consumer
requirements,
interfaces, API mgmt,
code
DevOps cycle y Kharnagy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 – APIOps changes by Niinioja
APIs need 2x DevOps
16. @mniinioja
Courses on APIOps Cycles in
www.apieconomy.info
Follow in Twitter @apiopscycles @mniinioja @osaangoltd or LinkedIn
16
Notes de l'éditeur
The book gives a lot of example cases, but also taps into the recent scientific studies and gives a good foundation on why the things we have combined to APIOps Cycles make sense, not just in practice but in theory.
There are a lot of APIs in a few parts of the world, but how the map is a bit blank around here in the Nordics and Europe in general. This study was ma de in 2016 and the source material for this research was Programmable web, which the researchers analyzed automatically. Situation has improved since, but for example in Finland, we have just managed to raise awareness between business competitiveness and API Economy.
APIs are de facto for younger software & younger developers
Integration specialists wonder what’s the fuss, APIs have been around 20 yrs
Rise of microservices, improvement of API management products and cloud computing have brought APIs to IT management’s radar
Front-end developers swear on GraphQL and others to other technologies, field is changing
Business people are interested in platforms as business model, but are just starting to gain interest in APIs.
Real problem in getting all of these different people from different professions to understand each other around APIs is the lack of common language and methods.
4 years ago I talked about the accidental API developer and 12 month API pregnancy. Those problems are still met by a lot of API product managers around the world. If you don’t have a clear target market and value proposition for your API and your documentation is written purely for developers, your sales, marketing or product owners are left powerless. One of my customer’s from US had exactly this problem recently. He said their sales people just can’t sell the API and that hits hard on his targets, he was the Product Manager. This is not just individual problem it’s almost always the case in some way. And it’s not just problem with public APIs. Just a week ago one lady in my training realized that she was in charge of a lot of public, partner and private APIs but the documentation was so poor, she couldn’t even understand herself what the APIs can actually be used for. I’m trying to highlight here the need for API value proposition as well as Developer experience. Not just for coders, but also for the managers and architects who need to decide what API to use.
API UX for developers is different than UX for the person with the money. CX for developers is not to scare them with the sales guy.