# Three Areas I Would Like To Cover When We Sit Down For An API Consulting

**Canonical:** https://apievangelist.com/2018/02/27/three-areas-i-would-like-to-cover-when-we-sit-down-for-an-api-consulting/

<p>
<p>I’m putting together some presentations for a handful of upcoming engagements, where I’m wanting to help my audience understand what an initial engagement will look like. While I am looking to have just a handful of bullets that can live on a single, or handful of slides, I also want a richer narrative to go along with it. To achieve this I rely on my blog, which helps me work my way through the details of what I do, and distill things down into something that I can deliver on the ground within the companies, organizations, institutions, and government agencies I am conducting business with.

<p>When I am sitting down with a new audience, and working to help them understand how I can help them begin, jumpstart, revive, and move forward with their API journey, I’m usually breaking things into three main areas:

<ul>
  <li><strong>Landscape Mapping</strong> - Establish a map of what currently is within an organization.
    <ul>
      <li><strong>Internal Resources</strong> - What existing web services, APIs, teams, and resources exist?</li>
      <li><strong>External Objectives</strong> - What are the external objectives of doing APIs?</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Strategy Development</strong> - Craft a coherent strategy for moving forward with APIs.
    <ul>
      <li><strong>API Lifecycle</strong> - Lay out a step by step list of stops along a modern API life cycle.</li>
      <li><strong>API Support</strong> - Identify how the strategy and operations will be supported within an organization.</li>
      <li><strong>API Evangelism</strong> - Consider how the message around API operations will spread internally, and externally.</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Execution</strong> - Identify a clear set of next steps regarding how APIs will evolve.
    <ul>
      <li><strong>Infrastructure</strong> - What services, tooling, and other API infrastructure is needed?</li>
      <li><strong>Resources</strong> - What resources have been identified for moving the API conversation forward?</li>
      <li><strong>Governance</strong> - What is the governance strategy for measuring, reporting upon, and enforcing the deliver of APIs across the API lifecycle presented.</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

<p>When I present to a new group of people within an organization, this is the outline I am looking to flesh out. I have to understand what is already occurring (or not) on the ground, which is why I need the landscape map. Then, borrowing from my existing API research I can help develop a a detailed strategy, which includes the critical elements of how we will be supporting and evangelizing the effort–which without, API efforts will always struggle. After that, I want to quickly get to work on how we will be executing on this vision, even if it just involves more investment in the landscape map, and overall strategy.

<p>I am working on more detailed materials to hand out prior to, and at the time I sit down with new clients, but I wanted to articulate in a single page, and using a simple set of bullets what I am looking to accomplish with any new consulting relationship. With a map in hand, and an strategy in mind, I’m confident that I can help folks I talk with move forward with their API journey in a more meaningful way. Something not everyone I talk with is confident in doing on their own, but with a little assistance, I’m pretty sure they will be able to get to work defining what the API journey will look like for their organization.