You can find endless information gathered profiling public APIs and the nuts and bolts of API governance via the API Evangelist website, but after much surveying and assessment of what API producers and consumers need, what is currently available to them from other services and tooling, API Evangelist will slowly shift over the next couple of weeks to focus on what we see as the missing fundamentals from API operations. These are the areas we see enterprises are the most deficient, and API service and tooling providers aren’t always investing in when it comes to surrounding their offerings with the knowledge teams need to be successful. These are the areas that API Evangelist will be heavily investing in when it comes to stories and knowledge building.
- HTTP - Understanding the basics of the one feature of APIs we all use every day.
- APIs - Having a handle on the role that HTTP APIs play in powering business.
- Schema - Seeing how this fundamental building block defines all of API operations.
- Operations - Lacking a shared understanding of what is needed to operate APIs.
- Governance - Missing the guidance teams need to deliver consistent APIs.
- Change - Confidently and collectively dealing with change that is occurring daily.
- Evangelism - Actively sharing what we know and are learning on a daily basis.
There are missing and deficient areas of our API operations. The downstream impacts of a lack of awareness, education, and resources in these areas can manifest itself in many different ways that impact business. While most enterprises, and the current wave of venture-backed startups are looking to throw everything possible in the governance area, the actual causes of the problems they are trying to fix are often spread across these other areas. API governance is important, but if your teams don’t have HTTP basics, understand where their API work fits into operations, and are not part of a wider plan to manage change while actively evangelizing APIs as part of their regular work—-API governance efforts will ultimately struggle and run out of fuel.
