Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization
- CIOs have trouble integrating new technologies (e.g. mobile, cloud solutions) with legacy applications, and lack standards for using APIs across the organization.
- Organizations produce APIs that are error-prone, not consistently configured, and not maintained effectively.
- Organizations are looking for ways to increase application quality and code reusability to improve development throughput using web APIs.
- Organizations are looking for opportunities to create an application ecosystem which can expose internal services across the organization and/or to external third parties and business partners.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Organizations are looking to go beyond current development practices to provide scalable and reusable web services.
- Web API development is a tactical competency that is important to enabling speed of development, quality of applications, reusability, innovation, and business alignment.
- Design your web API as a product that promotes speed of development and service reuse.
- Optimize the design, development, testing, and monitoring of your APIs incrementally and iteratively to cover all use cases in the long term.
Impact and Result
- Create a repeatable process to improve the quality, reusability, and governance of your web APIs.
- Define the purpose of your API and the common uses cases that it will service.
- Understand what development techniques are required to develop an effective web API based on Info-Tech’s web API framework.
- Continuously reiterate your web API to demonstrate to business stakeholders the value your web API provides.
Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization Research & Tools
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop APIs, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
- Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phases 1-4
1. Examine the opportunities web APIs can enable
Assess the opportunities of web APIs.
- Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 1: Examine the Opportunities Web APIs Can Enable
2. Design and develop a web API
Design and develop web APIs that support business processes and enable reusability.
- Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 2: Design and Develop a Web API
- Web APIs High-Level Design Requirements Template
- Web API Design Document Template
3. Test the web API
Accommodate web API testing best practices in application test plans.
- Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 3: Test the Web API
- Web API Test Plan Template
4. Monitor and continuously optimize the web API
Monitor the usage and value of web APIs and plan for future optimizations and maintenance.
- Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 4: Monitor and Continuously Optimize the Web API
- Web API Process Governance Template
Workshop: Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
1 Examine the Opportunities Web APIs Can Enable
The Purpose
Gauge the importance of web APIs for achieving your organizational needs.
Understand how web APIs can be used to achieve below-the-line and above-the-line benefits.
Be aware of web API development pitfalls.
Key Benefits Achieved
Understanding the revenue generation and process optimization opportunities web APIs can bring to your organization.
Knowledge of the current web API landscape.
Activities
1.1 Examine the opportunities web APIs can enable.
Outputs
2 Design & Develop Your Web API
The Purpose
Establish a web API design and development process.
Design scalable web APIs around defined business process flows and rules.
Define the web service objects that the web APIs will expose.
Key Benefits Achieved
Reusable web API designs.
Identification of data sets that will be available through web services.
Implement web API development best practices.
Activities
2.1 Define high-level design details based on web API requirements.
2.2 Define your process workflows and business rules.
2.3 Map the relationships among data tables through ERDs.
2.4 Define your data model by mapping the relationships among data tables through data flow diagrams.
2.5 Define your web service objects by effectively referencing your data model.
Outputs
High-level web API design.
Business process flow.
Entity relationship diagrams.
Data flow diagrams.
Identification of web service objects.
3 Test Your Web API
The Purpose
Incorporate APIs into your existing testing practices.
Emphasize security testing with web APIs.
Learn of the web API testing and monitoring tool landscape.
Key Benefits Achieved
Creation of a web API test plan.
Activities
3.1 Create a test plan for your web API.
Outputs
Web API Test Plan.
4 Monitor and Continuously Optimize Your Web API
The Purpose
Plan for iterative development and maintenance of web APIs.
Manage web APIs for versioning and reuse.
Establish a governance structure to manage changes to web APIs.
Key Benefits Achieved
Implement web API monitoring and maintenance best practices.
Establishment of a process to manage future development and maintenance of web APIs.
Activities
4.1 Identify roles for your API development projects.
4.2 Develop governance for web API development.
Outputs
RACI table that accommodates API development.
Web API operations governance structure.