Continuous API Management, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12. Continuing the Journey

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API management is a complex subject, and we’ve had to cover a lot of ground in this book to explore it. After a brief discussion of the challenge and promise of API programs (Chapter 1), we examined the foundational concept of API governance (Chapter 2) and what it means to do decision-based work. Focusing on decisions led us to a model of decision making with elements we could distribute or map. Mapping decisions gave us a powerful, nuanced way of managing API work.

With this focus on decision-making as a foundation, we started our API journey in earnest by introducing the first important API management factor: a product perspective (Chapter 3). Treating the API as a product that solves a problem for a target audience gives you a guiding light for deciding which decisions matter the most. We started with this product approach by focusing on the work of creating a single API product. Our experience tells us that the context of local optimization for an identified use case (such as Clayton Christensen’s “Jobs to Be Done”) is important. Starting from a single use case is also easier to grasp than starting by tackling the complex landscape that inevitably comes as you add more and more APIs to your system.

In this first set of chapters, we also explored the local context of an API by taking a tour of the API pillars (Chapter 4), learned about API styles (Chapter 6), and worked ...