Business marches forward at an ever-increasing pace, and your business is either left behind, keeping up, or out ahead defining the motion that is occurring within the industries you operate. There are a number of common elements across the API lifecycle that collectively contribute to the forward motion of a team, domain, or enterprise. Forward motion across teams will require a mix of investment across the technical but also business aspects of producing and consuming APIs, striking the balance between both sides of the API lifecycle.
These are the elements of motion when it comes to API operations.
- Contracts - Providing a machine-readable contract between API producer and consumer, outlining all the technical, but also business details of the relationship established when an API is published and made available for consumption.
- Communication - Communication between open source contributors and consumers can be difficult because the usual gates associated with proprietary offerings don’t exist, making open channels essential for health.
- Self-Service - Enterprise digital resources and capabilities are available via self-service and are visible only to intended audiences. Those who have access should be able to sign up and begin putting APIs to work with as few steps as possible.
- Road Map - Establish a road map on day one, and make sure you are keeping consumers informed of possible future developments to keep them along for the ride.
- Change Log - A detailed history of the changes that have been made specifically to an API, showing all of the changes to the structure of an API as part of the design and development process, providing a single list of what has changed for consumers, and other stakeholders to get up to speed.