When it comes to reviewing your HTTP API, it can really help to bring in an outside perspective. While I feel that enterprise organizations should always be investing in their own API governance capacity, I know that it helps to bring in an outside perspective to help change the tone of things, and get outside the normal business and politics that is the day-to-day within your enterprise. To help enterprises optimize their API review processes, I am developing a set of services, which includes API review as a service for HTTP APIs.
Here is what I can help bring to your API review that might change the tone of your API governance:
- Answers - I am here to just answer questions across your team, brining API governance expertise to the table.
- Domain - You are the expert in your domain, and I am an expert in my domain–let’s combine our powers.
- Consumers - I will come in as an advocate for your API consumers, and help you understand how your APIs will be used.
- Operations - I am not indoctrinated in your business operations, so I will ask different questions along the way.
- Mediation - I am happy to help mediate conversations occurring between teams when it comes to API policy.
- Politics - I am not involved in the existing politics that define your enterprise and can help contrast discussions.
- Research - I have the time and energy to conduct external research that will help better inform your API policies.
- Synchronous - I am happy to video conference and talk through the review of APIs and the operations around them.
- Asynchronous - Let’s leverage your existing Git, Chat, and email channels to engage in a review of your APIs.
- Specifications - I am 100% spec-defined and git-driven so agnostic to your infrastructure, services, and tooling.
You notice I don’t mention design. My approach to HTTP reviews is about standardization across your API operations. I am not bringing any design dogma or belief in any particular approach,pattern, or protocol. I am focused simply on governing the largest portion of your digital operations—-HTTP APIs. I am not reviewing your HTTP APIs to sell you the latest solution, I am here to review your APIs and help you invest in your own policies, rules, strategy, and guidance, and strengthen your own API governance capacity. So, let me know how I can help you review your APIs. We can do it tactically API by API, or I am happy to do it more strategically, finding which areas matter to your business, help you define your platform and lifecycle—-it is up to you.
