Chapter 2. API Governance
Hey, a rule is a rule, and letâs face it, without rules thereâs chaos.
Cosmo Kramer
Governance isnât the kind of thing people get excited about. Itâs also a topic that carries a bit of emotional baggage. After all, few people want to be governed and most people have had bad experiences with poorly designed governance policies and non-sensical rules. Bad governance (like bad design) makes life harder. But in our experience, itâs difficult to talk about API management without addressing it.
In fact, weâll go as far as saying that itâs impossible to manage your APIs without governing them.
Sometimes, API governance happens in a company, but the term âgovernanceâ is never used. Thatâs perfectly fine. Names matter, and in some organizations governance implies a desire to be highly centralized and authoritative. That can run counter to a culture that embraces decentralization and worker empowerment, so it makes sense that governance is a bad word in those kinds of places. No matter what itâs called, even in this type of decentralized work culture, some form of decision governance is taking placeâbut it will probably look radically different from the governance system at a more traditional, top-down organization.
The question âShould you govern your APIs?â isnât very interesting, because in our opinion, the answer is always yes. Instead, ask yourself: âWhich decisions need to be governed?â and âWhere should that governance ...
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