Continuous API Management

Continuous API Management

by Mehdi Medjaoui, Erik Wilde, Ronnie Mitra, Mike Amundsen
Released November 2018
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781492043553

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Book description

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. This practical guide 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 from the API Academy show software architects, program directors, and product owners how to maximize the value of their APIs by managing them as products through a continuous life cycle.

  • Learn which API decisions you need to govern and how and where to do so
  • Design, deploy, and manage APIs using an API-as-a-product (AaaP) approach
  • Examine ten 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 life cycle
  • Delve into team roles needed to design, build, and maintain your APIs
  • Learn how to manage your API landscape—the set of APIs published by your organization

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Table of contents

  1. Foreword
  2. Preface
    1. Who Should Read This Book
    2. What’s in This Book
      1. The Outline
    3. What’s Not in This Book
    4. Conventions Used in This Book
    5. Safari® Books Online
    6. How to Contact Us
    7. Acknowledgments
  3. 1. The Challenge of API Management
    1. What Is API Management?
      1. What Is an API?
      2. More Than Just the API
      3. API Maturity Stages
      4. More Than a Single API
      5. The Business of APIs
    2. Why Is API Management Difficult?
      1. Scope
      2. Scale
      3. Standards
    3. Managing the API Landscape
      1. Technology
      2. Teams
      3. Governance
    4. Summary
  4. 2. API Governance
    1. Understanding API Governance
      1. Decisions
      2. Governing Decisions
      3. Governing Complex Systems
    2. Governing Decisions
      1. Centralization and Decentralization
      2. The Elements of a Decision
      3. Decision Mapping
    3. Designing Your Governance System
      1. Governance Pattern #1: Interface Supervision
      2. Governance Pattern #2: Machine-Driven Governance
      3. Governance Pattern #3: Collaborative Governance
    4. Summary
  5. 3. The API as a Product
    1. Design Thinking
      1. Matching People’s Needs
      2. Viable Business Strategy
      3. The Bezos Mandate
      4. Applying Design Thinking to APIs
    2. Customer Onboarding
      1. Time to Wow!
      2. Onboarding for Your APIs
    3. Developer Experience
      1. Knowing Your Audience
      2. Making It Safe and Easy
    4. Summary
  6. 4. The Ten Pillars of an API Product
    1. Introducing the Pillars
      1. Strategy
      2. Design
      3. Documentation
      4. Development
      5. Testing
      6. Deployment
      7. Security
      8. Monitoring
      9. Discovery and Promotion
      10. Change Management
    2. Summary
  7. 5. Continuous API Improvement
    1. Changing an API
      1. The API Release Lifecycle
      2. Changing the Interface Model
      3. Changing the Implementation
      4. Changing the Instance
      5. Changing the Supporting Assets
    2. Managing Change Continuously
      1. Incremental Improvement
      2. API Change Velocity
    3. Improving API Changeability
      1. Effort Costs
      2. Opportunity Costs
      3. Coupling Costs
    4. Summary
  8. 6. The API Product Lifecycle
    1. Measurements and Milestones
      1. OKRs and KPIs
      2. Defining an API Objective
      3. Identifying Measurable Results
    2. The API Product Lifecycle
      1. Stage 1: Create
      2. Stage 2: Publish
      3. Stage 3: Realize
      4. Stage 4: Maintain
      5. Stage 5: Retire
    3. Applying the Product Lifecycle to the Pillars
      1. Create
      2. Publish
      3. Realize
      4. Maintain
      5. Retire
    4. Summary
  9. 7. API Teams
    1. API Roles
      1. Business Roles
      2. Technical Roles
    2. API Teams
      1. Teams and API Maturity
      2. Scaling Up Your Teams
      3. Teams and Roles at Spotify
      4. Scaling Your Teams on Paper
    3. Culture and Teams
      1. Recognizing Conway’s Law
      2. Leveraging Dunbar’s Numbers
      3. Enabling Alexander’s Cultural Mosaic
      4. Supporting Experimentation
    4. Summary
  10. 8. API Landscapes
    1. API Archaeology
    2. API Management at Scale
      1. The Platform Principle
      2. Principles, Protocols, and Patterns
      3. API Landscapes as Language Landscapes
      4. API the APIs
    3. Understanding the Landscape
    4. The Eight Vs of API Landscapes
      1. Variety
      2. Vocabulary
      3. Volume
      4. Velocity
      5. Vulnerability
      6. Visibility
      7. Versioning
      8. Volatility
    5. Summary
  11. 9. API Landscape Journey
    1. Structuring Guidance in the API Landscape
    2. The Lifecycle of Guidance in the API Landscape
    3. The Center for Enablement
      1. C4E Team and Context
    4. Maturity and the Eight Vs
      1. Variety
      2. Vocabulary
      3. Volume
      4. Velocity
      5. Vulnerability
      6. Visibility
      7. Versioning
      8. Volatility
    5. Summary
  12. 10. Managing the API Lifecycle in an Evolving Landscape
    1. API Products and Lifecycle Pillars
      1. API Landscapes
      2. Decision Points and Maturity
    2. Landscape Aspects and API Lifecycle Pillars
      1. Strategy
      2. Design
      3. Documentation
      4. Development
      5. Testing
      6. Deployment
      7. Security
      8. Monitoring
      9. Discovery
      10. Change Management
    3. Summary
  13. 11. Continuing the Journey
    1. Prepare for the Future
    2. Start Managing Today
  14. Index

Product information

  • Title: Continuous API Management
  • Author(s): Mehdi Medjaoui, Erik Wilde, Ronnie Mitra, Mike Amundsen
  • Release date: November 2018
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781492043553