Continuous API Management: Making the Right Decisions in an Evolving Landscape

by Mehdi Medjaoui, Erik Wilde, Ronnie Mitra, Mike Amundsen

Overview

A lot of work is required to release an API, but the effort doesn't always pay off. Overplanning before an API matures is a wasted investment, while underplanning can lead to disaster. The second edition of this book provides maturity models for individual APIs and multi-API landscapes to help you invest the right human and company resources for the right maturity level at the right time.

How do you balance the desire for agility and speed with the need for robust and scalable operations? Four experts show software architects, program directors, and product owners how to maximize the value of their APIs by managing them as products through a continuous lifecycle.

• Learn which API decisions you need to govern
• Design, deploy, and manage APIs using an API-as-a-product (AaaP) approach
• Examine 10 pillars that form the foundation of API product work
• Learn how the continuous improvement model governs changes throughout an API's lifetime
• Explore the five stages of a complete API product lifecycle
• Delve into team roles needed to design, build, and maintain your APIs
• Learn how to manage APIs published by your organization

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781098103477
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/18/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Mehdi Medjaoui is the co-founder of Webshell SAS (OAuth.io, GetMateria.com) and the co-founder of the APIdays.io conferences series (2017 program : Sydney, Barcelona, San Francisco, London, Auckland, Paris). He is also the co-author of the API Industry Landscape, The State of API Documentation 2017, and The State of Banking APIs 2017, as well as an author at Readwrite. He's a manager of the API Accelerator program at ReadwriteLabs (Launch February 2018) and the organizer for the Paris API meetup, APICraftSF meetup and local Hackathons.

Erik WIlde has been working in computer networking for a long time, starting with a Ph.D. in computer networking from ETH Zürich. He published the worldwide first book about the technical foundations of the Web during his post-doc year at ICSI, and then his interest switched to Web technologies and Web architecture -- fields he has been working in since 1997.

Ronnie Mitra is a Member of the API Academy. Recognized thought-leader in the API community, especially around API design and HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). Co-authored O’Reilly’s Microservices: Up and Running book.

An internationally known author and speaker, Mike Amundsen travels the world consulting and talking about network architecture, Web development, and other subjects. As Director of Architecture for the API Academy, he works with companies to provide insight on how best to capitalize on the opportunities APIs present to both consumers and the enterprise.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

1 The Challenge of API Management 1

What Is API Management? 2

What Is an API? 3

More Than Just the API 4

API Maturity Stages 5

More Than a Single API 5

The Business of APIs 6

Why Is API Management Difficult? 7

Scope 8

Scale 9

Standards 9

Managing the API Landscape 10

Technology 11

Teams 11

Governance 12

Summary 14

2 API Governance 15

Understanding API Governance 16

Decisions 16

Governing Decisions 17

Governing Complex Systems 18

Governing Decisions 20

Centralization and Decentralization 22

The Elements of a Decision 27

Decision Mapping 32

Designing Your Governance System 33

Governance Pattern #1 Interface Supervision 35

Governance Pattern #2 Machine-Driven Governance 36

Governance Pattern #3 Collaborative Governance 37

Summary 38

3 The API as a Product 39

Design Thinking 40

Matching People's Needs 41

Viable Business Strategy 41

The Bezos Mandate 42

Applying Design Thinking to APIs 43

Customer Onboarding 44

Time to Wow! 45

Onboarding for Your APIs 47

Developer Experience 48

Knowing Your Audience 49

Making It Safe and Easy 53

Summary 56

4 The Ten Pillars of an API Product 59

Introducing the Pillars 59

Strategy 60

Design 64

Documentation 67

Development 70

Testing 73

Deployment 77

Security 80

Monitoring 82

Discovery and Promotion 83

Change Management 86

Summary 87

5 Continuous API Improvement 89

Changing an API 90

The API Release Lifecycle 90

Changing the Interface Model 92

Changing the Implementation 94

Changing the Instance 95

Changing the Supporting Assets 95

Managing Change Continuously 96

Incremental Improvement 96

API Change Velocity 98

Improving API Changeability 100

Effort Costs 100

Opportunity Costs 101

Coupling Costs 102

Summary 103

6 The API Product Lifecycle 105

Measurements and Milestones 106

OKRs and KPIs 106

Defining an API Objective 108

Identifying Measurable Results 109

The API Product Lifecycle 111

Stage 1 Create 112

Stage 2 Publish 113

Stage 3 Realize 115

Stage 4 Maintain 117

Stage 5 Retire 117

Applying the Product Lifecycle to the Pillars 119

Create 120

Publish 123

Realize 126

Maintain 128

Retire 129

Summary 130

7 API Teams 131

API Roles 132

Business Roles 134

Technical Roles 136

API Teams 138

Teams and API Maturity 138

Scaling Up Your Teams 144

Teams and Roles at Spotify 145

Scaling Your Teams on Paper 146

Culture and Teams 147

Recognizing Conway's Law 148

Leveraging Dunbar's Numbers 149

Enabling Alexander's Cultural Mosaic 151

Supporting Experimentation 153

Summary 154

8 API Landscapes 157

API Archaeology 159

API Management at Scale 160

The Platform Principle 162

Principles, Protocols, and Patterns 163

API Landscapes as Language Landscapes 166

API the APIs 168

Understanding the Landscape 169

The Eight Vs of API Landscapes 170

Variety 171

Vocabulary 172

Volume 176

Velocity 177

Vulnerability 178

Visibility 179

Versioning 180

Volatility 182

Summary 183

9 API Landscape Journey 185

Structuring Guidance in the API Landscape 186

The Lifecycle of Guidance in the API Landscape 189

The Center for Enablement 190

C4E Team and Context 192

Maturity and the Eight Vs 194

Variety 195

Vocabulary 197

Volume 200

Velocity 202

Vulnerability 204

Visibility 207

Versioning 209

Volatility 211

Summary 213

10 Managing the API Lifecycle in an Evolving Landscape 215

API Products and Lifecycle Pillars 215

API Landscapes 216

Decision Points and Maturity 217

Landscape Aspects and API Lifecycle Pillars 217

Strategy 219

Design 221

Documentation 223

Development 227

Testing 230

Deployment 235

Security 239

Monitoring 242

Discovery 244

Change Management 248

Summary 251

11 Continuing the Journey 253

Prepare for the Future 254

Start Managing Today 254

Index 257