From building APIs I was always intrigued by APIs. Initially, I enjoyed building them. APIs of all kinds; functions, objects, Java interfaces, libraries, and of course, Web APIs. There’s something magical about encapsulating complex information and processes into a single interaction. To the business behind them I fell in love with APIs when I recognized their business significance. Giants like AWS, Twilio, and Stripe have leveraged APIs to build robust, scalable businesses.

Lay out the Context An API does not live in isolation. It is part of business, involves people, and may sit next to other APIs. All these are necessary to scope and design the API. Instead of that, you could create many integration pipes. It would be difficult to understand them all in a few years. Input: Interviews, relevant api designs, business & architecture diagrams, engineering docs. Identify the nonfunctional requirements Review the security model & performance expectations.

For the last year, I have been working on what “better API design” means. How can we better design the public and our internal APIs? The term that comes to my mind to define this is maturity, thus API design maturity. What is API design maturity, then? When I searched on Google, most of the results were about the Richardson Maturity Model. Some results may refer to API-First and how an organization generally treats APIs.

Introduction REST (OpenAPI) and gRPC are two of the most popular formats for APIs. REST is the style of choice of most public APIs, and gRPC is a popular alternative for internal APIs that need an efficient network. The OpenAPI Specification defines a standard to describe REST APIs and their capabilities. By default, gRPC uses Protocol Buffers, Google’s open-source mechanism for serializing structured data. The Protocol buffer schema is also an API specification.

Intro Successful digital transformation requires a focus on enterprise architecture, whether improving the system’s or application’s architecture or implementing strategies like API standardization. For an enterprise to practice architecture in an agile environment, several architects and designers must support the project’s agile value streams, which are the actions taken from conception to delivery and support that add value to a product or service. One organization may have a different team of architects producing solution designs and templates.