Weekly API Evangelist Governance (Guidance)
Let’s give a big Monday shout out to our SDK partner APIMATIC. API Evangelist storytelling occurs because of APIMATIC, and I am thankful to have their support for this ride!
I am continuing with a shift in focus from the API producer perspective of API governance to the consumer view of API integration. Ultimately can see how I will end up getting to the same place, but I am coming at if from the outside in, rather than the inside out. I like it here. This is where I believe the power lies within the API economy. To help understand what I mean, let’s explore the dimensions of API integration…
Integration
Over the last decade I’ve learned that the majority of API producers and API consumers do not care about the finer details of API design and operations—they just want some digital resources integrated into a system or application. However you get it done, just get it done. We just don’t have time for the finer details in this fast-paced digital economy.
Discovery
There is no budget for API discovery, but all digital resources should just be available. Investors don’t see API discovery worth investing in, business leadership won’t allocate time and budget to address API sprawl. However, everyone can agree that APIs should be available for developers to put to work when integrating with systems and applications.
Onboarding
Documentation for APIs is the #1 problem for developers putting APIs to work, but really API consumers just want the onboarding to be frictionless. We really don’t want to wade through your documentation or be concerned with whether or not it is up to date—we just want the onboarding to be intuitive, effortless, and accomplishes what we need today.
Authenticated
As a consumer I really don’t have time to understand the nuance or details of authentication. We just expect it to be secure and robust, representing what everyone needs when it comes to securing digital resources. As a consumer I get that I need to authenticate, I just don’t want it to be complicated or a hassle—it is something that should just work for me.
Configurable
As a consumer I am going to have some special needs when it comes to the requests I make and the responses I get back. I really don’t have time to learn all of the technical details of your API, but I will want to be able to easy configure how I am using your API without having to become an expert in how your API works for this single integration.
Performant
As a consumer, I don’t have time to become an expert in HTTP or TCP, caching, or understand the tradeoffs between REST, gRPC, and Kafka. But I do expect a certain level of performance when it comes to integrating with an API. An API should be fast from hello world all the way to production without me having to think much about it.
Reliable
The APIs I am integrating with need to be reliable. They should just work consistently over time without me having to troubleshoot problems and have anything keep me up at night. I really don’t need to know all the details of what goes into the reliability of an API I am integrating with—it should just be a feeling I have as I am onboarding and using.
Automated
The automation of my integrations should be a natural part of my work. I need to be able to easily know what events I can respond to and how to schedule each of my integrations to meet my unique needs. The automation of the APIs I am integrating with should be seamless as part of my existing CI/CD development workflows.
Observable
I want to be able to see an API and my usage of each API. I don’t want too much information, but enough that will help me understand how I am using it as part of my system or application integration. I want the observability of each API I integrate with to be a seamless part of my existing observability systems used across my existing API operations.
Cost Effective
The APIs I am integrating with almost always cost me money. I need to understand the plans and rate limits available to me, and I don’t like any surprises when it comes to my monthly bills across an increasing number of APIs. Ideally I can understand easily define what my budgets are across the API I am using across existing service plans.
Standardized
I really appreciate the standardization of the APIs I use by default, without having to become an expert on those standards. I want the currency, dates, times, and every other technical details of the APIs I am integrating with to be as standardized as possible so I don’t have to do extra work when I am putting APIs to work as part of my day.
Changes
I am painfully aware that change is inevitable, but I really need help managing change across all of the APIs I am using. I need change to be planned and communicated and something that is always as backward compatible as possible. Change should be abstracted away whenever possible, but presented in ways that keep me moving forward.
Guided
Managing integrations across many APIs takes a lot of work. I spend a lot of time having to find documentation, SDKs, refreshing tokens, and doing a lot of busy work to properly integrate with APIs, but also keeping them working reliably. I really would like what I need to find me throughout my API journey, making itself available when I need, right at my fingertips.
Conversations
If any of this resonated with you, I would like to hear more. I am engaging in conversations with API engineers and platform people about their experience consuming 1st-party and 3rd-party APIs across their operations. I am working with LeTroy Gardner, my partner in crime on the Breaking Change podcast, to turn some of these conversations into a new podcast.
If you’d like to talk feel free to email me at kin@apievangelist.com and we’ll find some time to talk. I will be having private conversations with folks, as well as ones that end up being made public as part of our ongoing API Evangelist conversations, and on a new podcast we are planning for the fall 2015, which I’d like you to be part of the story.
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. - B. F. Skinner
If you need API Evangelist to help out with API governance please let us know how we can help. And thank you again to APIMATIC for their continued support. If you have any questions or would like participate in my market research and conversations, please feel free to drop me an email today.