A look at lessons from our recent consulting engagements on why and how enterprises are moving from an API program to an API platform as part of their digital transformation. Includes 5 common practices we see across successful enterprises as they move to an API platform. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km-mCx0Zbgo&feature=youtu.be

1. Confidential and Proprietary
Lessons from
Transforming the Enterprise
to an API Platform
10 April 2018
James Higginbotham
@launchany

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Introduction
• Executive API Consultant
• API strategy, program execution
• Across multiple verticals:
– Commercial Insurance
– Healthcare
– Hospitality
– Finance and Banking
– Travel
– Airline

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A Review of APIs
• API, or Application Programming Interface, is a contract between software and
developers to support integration
• Expose data and capabilities through programmatic interfaces
• A successful API program focuses on
value, reuse, and innovation
• HTTP is the most common protocol for APIs
• OpenAPI Specification is a common format
to capture API contracts, encourage
communication, and drive automation

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The Enterprise API Platform Journey

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Why Build an Enterprise API Platform?
• API Products, commonly used to drive web and mobile applications, are common
within the enterprise
• However, this typically focuses on system integration or apps
• Platforms create an ecosystem between orgs, customers, and partners
• Cloud Elements 2018 Survey:
“36% of respondents stated that their primary motivation to become a platform
provider was sparked by their desire to maintain ‘stickiness’ with customers by
integrating easily across the ecosystem of applications”

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The Enterprise API Platform
Offers API
Inventory API
Bookings API
Identity API
Accounts API
Rewards API
Partners
Internal
Developers
Public App
Developers
Customers
Third-party
Approved Apps

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5 Key Steps For Moving to an API Platform
1. Develop a robust API program that supports platform needs
2. Implement federated API governance to increase platform quality
3. Migrate to microservices to enable platform agility
4. Efficient API onboarding and adoption to grow the platform
5. Define platform processes to accelerate and sustain the platform

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1. Developing an Effective API Program

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The Top 5 Reasons for Enterprise API Programs
1. Accelerate mobile strategy by making data and services more accessible
2. Adapt to changing customer relationships that go beyond web and mobile to
new devices
3. Transform partner integrations by adding efficiency and freeing up resources
4. Foster technical and business innovation by reducing technical barriers to
delivery
5. Unsilo channels through easier data sharing across internal teams and
systems

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API Portfolio Management is Critical
• Define a clear path for APIs to go from idea to production through SDLC
• Not all APIs are public – define processes for private, partner, and public APIs
• Choose the proper level of granularity and bundling necessary to restrict access,
enforce entitlements, and encourage understanding of the portfolio
• Drive adoption through clear processes that encourage discovery and onboarding
through developer-focused support processes
• Establish KPIs that define quality APIs
– Examples include: API reuse, definition/contract quality, discoverability,
NPS scoring

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How to Design an Effective API Program
1. Ask why your API program exists and clearly state the objectives
2. Clearly document and share your vision across the organization. Repeat it often
as a reminder of the larger vision
3. Identify change agents within the organization that understand the value of an
API platform, help them share the vision
4. Evangelize existing/upcoming APIs
5. Implement API governance with a focus on coaching and standards
6. Establish an API training program and build shared knowledge
7. Manage your API portfolio as products that target internal, partner, and public
stakeholders

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2. Implementing API Governance

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Governance is Changing
• SOA governance often brings to mind the idea of rigid, strict, heavy-handed
enforcement of rules and processes
• Most historical SOA Governance programs were internally focused to remove
redundancies
• Today's modern API programs are externally focused to drive revenue &
efficiencies
• API governance should encourage consistency across the organization, mixed
with flexibility to support changing requirements

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5 Keys to Effective API Governance
1. Coach teams on API modeling and design techniques, resulting in self-
sufficient delivery teams
2. Deliver educational material, training, and other resources to communicate
shared knowledge
3. Empower solution teams to discover and consume existing APIs
4. Define clear API standards, protocols, and design patterns supported by the
organization
5. Craft flexible processes and practices that encourage innovation

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Centralized vs. Federated Governance
• Centralized
– Creates strict consistency across APIs
– Requires a go/no-go decision for every API created
– Reduces throughput, limits creativity by teams due to limitations of a single governance team
• Federated
– Centralized group creates standards, produce shared resources
– Teams define APIs and federated coach/enforce standards locally whenever possible
– Lends more context to the problem than a centralized group
– Better fit for larger organizations or those with distributed workforce
• Find the balance between full control and no control – every organization is
different

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3. Migrating to Microservices

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Review: Microservice Architecture
• Loosely-coupled, service-oriented architecture composed of microservices
• Apply bounded context to limit cognitive load
• Independently deployable via automation
• Enable replaceability and experimentation
• Note: Best for large organizations, co-located disparate data, and high complexity
systems

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Microservices Support API-Centric Product Teams
Alexa
VoiceSkill
API
Product
API
Product
Messaging
(e.g.Kafka)
…
Microservice
…
API
…
Microservice
…
API
…
Microservice
…
API
…
Microservice
…
API
Slack
Chatbot
Web+
MobileApp
API
Product
Team B
Team A
Messaging
(e.g.Kafka)

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Speed vs. Safety
• All organizations want to build software fast
• Speed increases bugs, decreases reliability
• Every time we depend on another team to finish our work, we slow down
• Every time we need to have a meeting to stay in sync, we slow down
• The goal of microservices is to reduce coordination between teams, but only
if we apply the proper software architecture principles (high cohesion, loose
coupling, system design)
• APIs define contracts, microservices used for implementation
• Automate as much as possible to drive delivery end-to-end quickly

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Microservice Architecture is primarily
about reducing coordination costs while
aligning efforts across multiple
teams/developers working on a complex
system.

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Case Study: Microservice-Based Hospitality Platform
• Previous department was comprised of in-house and third-party systems that
shared databases + limited knowledge constrained to a few teams
• Microservice approach allows specialists to build out necessary capabilities, while
limiting the amount of knowledge required to produce solutions
• Platform APIs are externalized via an API management layer to hide the details
of the microservices
• Started as a single team that built out a single API with a few microservices
• Now has expanded to multiple teams with product owners

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4. Increasing API Platform Adoption

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How We Think of API Consumption

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The Reality of API Consumption
Consumption Phase Goal
Discovery Identify API capabilities
Mapping Map solution to Platform API capabilities using reference documentation
Exploration Prototype consumption (“Try-it-out”)
Onboarding App registration for API access to testing and staging
Integration Developers consume the API within the solution via code
Certification Obtain final approval for production API access
Usage Monitoring Production usage monitoring and throttling
Platform Improvement Request platform API enhancements to meet the needs of the solution
Platform Updates Build platform awareness; update notifications for enhancements;
sunsetting
A great API program assists API consumers through all phases of their consumption journey.
This results in a healthy, growing platform instead of a stagnating program.

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API Adoption Maturity Model
Level 1: Adhoc
Limited or no adoption, no guidance on capabilities provided or how to
get started
Level 2: Dev Portal
Capabilities and API docs offered to teams for reference and shared
understanding
Level 3: Enablement
Apps onboarding and consuming with guidance
Level 4: Self-Onboarding
Apps are able to onboard with minimal or no guidance
Level 5: Community
API platform knowledge shared and coached without council
guidance

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5. Accelerating Your Platform Initiative

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API Platforms: Moving Beyond APIs to Events and Streams
• Many enterprises extending their platform to include message streams and
pub/sub eventing as part of the portfolio
• Events and streaming enable push-based notifications that extend a platform
beyond its original design
• API Platforms must move beyond request/response APIs:
“40% of those surveyed responded that their apps
did not support event-based framework, but it was the
number one answer when we asked which API
technology area was most in need of innovation.”
-- Cloud Elements 2018 Survey

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Product-Driven. API-Centric
• Digital transformation requires an API-first approach
• Transformation begins with managing APIs as long-lived products, not time-boxed
projects
• Using dedicated product development teams
• Each team has a product owner that listens to stakeholders and adjusts the API
roadmap based on demand
• KPI-driven (e.g. API req/month, tx/day)
• Without a product-driven approach, APIs
become stale and anemic, resulting in
frustrated teams

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Fintech Case Study: From Brokered APIs to Direct Consumer-Producer
• Engagement with a U.S. bank that has 10k+ developers across multiple cities
• Top-down executive vision for an API platform
• Started with a few REST-based APIs in high-value areas, today they have 1000s
of APIs
• Required training, federated governance, and significant cultural shift
• Move from centralized “digital product team” that own SOAP services, to
productized teams that own APIs & streams and apply a direct-to-consumer
approach
• Shift from project-to-product-centric approach underway - “you build it, you own
it”. No more maintenance teams!

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Apply Cross-Functional API Training

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Operationalizing the Platform Involves Everyone
• Security
– Review API designs, identify risks, authority to approve/decline apps consuming sensitive endpoints
• Platform
– Product ownership, roadmapping, marketing/evangelism, drive onboarding consumers, coach teams new
to consuming the platform, education (self-serve and workshops, hackathons)
• Infrastructure/DevOps
– Ensure network, server, container platforms, necessary resources (e.g. message brokers, kafka, etc) are
available and can be installed for a new project/team as required
• Engineering
– Coach teams on common practices, patterns, delivery; onboard new projects that (most likely) consume
the platform
• Program Management Office
– Assist in the overall process of the platform and API initiatives, implement change management

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From IT-Driven to Platform-Driven
• Speed and safety in harmony
– Safety without speed slows down innovation; speed without safety results in a poor customer experience.
The goal is to move safely (PII, NPI, GDPR) at a higher rate of speed
• Consistent customer experience across all channels
– An API-centric approach ensures consistency across all channels, while each channel applies API
capabilities in the manner best suited for the channel
• Co-ownership of digital products to support IT and business needs
– Business and IT works together to deliver a great customer experience
• Federation over centralization
– Federation supports increased speed and prevents silo-based delivery processes, while centralization
reduces the speed of innovation to the slowest point in the process

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Questions?
James Higginbotham
james@launchany.com
@launchany
https://apideveloperweekly.com