These are the stops in a modern API lifecycle that I keep track of trying to understand how APIs are being delivered across the space:
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From the simplest definition of what a service does, all the way to the complete OpenAPI definition for each service.
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The consistent design of each service leverage existing patterns, as well as the web to deliver each service.
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Understanding how hypermedia can be applied at the design level to help us bring more resiliency to our APIs infrastructure.
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Trying to learn about about organizations are adopting a microservices way of delivering API driven services to meet their needs.
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Plan for handling changes, and the inevitable evolution of each service, its definitions, and supporting code.
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The backend database schema, infrastructure, and other relevant information regarding how data is managed.
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Looking at pure data and how it is used and made available using APIs as the access point for working with valuable data assets.
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Understanding why and how people are scraping data and content instead of using APIs and the imbalance that exists across the web.
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Learning how GraphQL and other query languages are being used to make APIs more accessible to targeted consumers who desire access to entire schema.
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How is the underlying compute delivered for each service using whether it is in in the cloud or on-premise infrastructure.
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Understanding cntainers are being used when it comes to deploying and orchestration API infrastructure.
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Keeping an eye on how serverless is changing the conversation and being used to deploy and consume APIs.
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What does storage of all heavy objects, media, and other assets involved with the delivery of services.
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Understanding where the distributed, encrypted opportunities lie within the blockchain if it exists beyond the hype.
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Applying algorithms behind our APIs, going beyond just data, and providing logic and other magic using code.
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Details services developed, and deployed, including frameworks and other libraries being used.
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Defining what the build, syndication, and orchestration of service deployments and integrations look like, and are executed.
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Identifying all backend service, code and infrastructure dependencies present for each service.
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Strategy for understanding what search will look like for each individual service, and play a role in larger, more comprehensive search across services.
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What proxies are in place to translate, cache, stream, and make services more efficient and secure?
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What gateways are in place to defend, protect, route, translate, and act as gatekeeper for service operations?
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Keeping an eye on how Google is evolving APIs using HTTP/2 and Protobuf to provide B2B scale APIs.
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Details how how services and their underlying data are mocked, virtualized, sandboxed, and made available for non-production usage.
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The domain addressing being used for routing, management and auditing of all service traffic.
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What is involved with authentication across all services, including key-based approaches, basic authentication, JWT, and OAuth solutions.
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Information about how services are composed, limited, measured, reported upon, and managed consistently across all services.
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What is being logged as part of service operations, and what is required to participate in overall logging strategy?
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The strategy for how all services are required to be published to one or many public, private, and partner developer portals.
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Learning how companies are providing getting started pages to help developers get up and running with APIs.
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The requirements for what documentation is expected as part of each service presence, defining what the services delivers.
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Relevant support channels, points of contact, and best practices for receiving support as an API consumer.
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Information about the communication strategy around each service, and how blogs, social, and other channels should be leveraged.
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Details on a services road map, and what the future will hold, providing individual service, as well as larger organizational details on what is next.
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Expectations, communications, and transparency around what the current bugs, issues, and other active problems exist on a platform.
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Translating the road map, and issues into a log of activity that has occurred for each service, providing a history of the service.
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What is required when it comes to monitoring the availability and activity of each individual service.
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The tactical, as well as strategic testing that is involved with each service, ensuring it is meeting service level agreements.
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How is the performance of each service measured and report upon, providing a benchmark for the quality of service.
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Tracking on how companies are being more reliable when it comes to their API operations, and ofering a higher level of services with their APIs infrastructure.
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What does observability of the service look like, providing transparency and accountability using all of its existing outputs?
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What caching exists at the server, CDN, and DNS layers for each service to provide a higher level of performance?
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Details regarding what is expected regarding encryption on disk, as well as in transport for each service.
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Detailed strategy and processes regarding how each service is secured on a regular basis as part of operations.
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Looking at the vulnerabilities, and the effort to patch them that exist across the technology sector and may be impacting APIs.
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Tracking on the breaches that are ocurring and trying to learn from them and apply to the world of APIs.
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Looking at the more theatrical side of security and what stories are being told to influence and stoke our fears.
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Keeping an eye on the unauthorized and rogue APIs that are launched when companies fail to make publicly available APIs accessible to consumers.
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Considerations, and legal requirements applied to each service as part of the overall, or individual terms of services.
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Details regarding the privacy of platform owners, developers, and end users as it pertains to service usage.
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Details regarding what service levels are required to be met when it comes to partner and public engagements.
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Information about backend server code, API surface area, data, and client licensing in play.
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Studying how copyright is being applied to APIs, and other aspects of deploying technology behind API infrastructure.
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Understanding how APIs are being patented by companies, and what impact this will have on the wider API ecosystem.
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What branding requirements are in place for the platforms and its partners when it comes to the service.
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Information regarding regulations in place that effect service operations, and are required as part of its usage.
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Understanding how GDPR is impacting businesses and how APIs can be put to work to help satisfy the regulation.
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How are services catalogued and made discoverable, making them accessible to other systems, developers, as well as to internal, partner, or public groups.
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Information about clients being used to interface with and work with the service, allowing it to be put to use without code.
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The command line interface (CLI) tooling being used to developer or consume a service.
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What software development kits (SDK) are generated, or developed and maintained as part of a service’s operation?
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What platform plugins are developed and maintained as part of a services operations, allowing it to work with other platforms and services.
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Are there integrated development environment (IDE) integrations, libraries, plugins, or availability considerations for each service?
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Are there any browser plugins, add-ons, bookmarklets and integrations used as part of each service’s operation?
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Information about any embeddable badges, buttons, widgets, and other JavaScript enabled solutions built on top of a service?
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Understanding how APIs are being used to connect devices to the Internet, generating more data while also using the cloud for connectivity.
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Looking at the industrial side of the Internet of Things, going beyond just consumer level discussions and looking at how business are connecting devices to the Internet.
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What type of automation and bot implementations are in development or being supported as part of a service’s operation?
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Are there specific visualizations that exist to help present the resources available within any service?
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How are logs, APIs, and other aspects of a service being used as part of wider analysis, and analytics strategy?
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Looking to learn about how machine learning is being used via APIs, and trying to cut through the hype and understand how it can really be put to work.
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Are there any aggregation solutions in place that involve the service, and depend on its availability?
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What 3rd party integrations are available for working with a service in existing integration platforms like IFTTT, and Zapier.
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Information about networks that are setup, used, and allocated for each service governing how it can be accessed and consumed.
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Which regions does a service operate within, making it available in specific regions, and jurisdictions–also which regions is it not allowed to operate within.
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Are there webhooks employed to respond to events that occur via the service, pushing data, and notification externally to consumers?
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What solutions are available for migrating an API between regions, cloud environments, and on-premise?
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What types of backups are in place to bring redundancy to the database, server, storage, and other essential aspects of a service’s operations?
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Are there Server-Sent Events (SSE), Websocket, Kafka, and other real time aspects of a service’s delivery?
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Are there any voice or speech enablement, integrating services with Alex, Siri, Google Home, or other conversational interface?
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What types of spreadsheet integrations, connectors, and publishing solutions are available for a service?
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Where do the funds for operating a service come from within a company, from external organizations, or VC funds?
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What does it cost to operate a service, breaking down the one time and recurring costs involved with delivering the service.
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Outline of plans involved with defining, measuring, reporting, and quantifying value generated around a service’s operation.
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An overview of partner program involved with a service’s operation, and how a wider partner strategy affects a service’s access and consumption.
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Are there certification channels available for applications and developers, defining the knowledge required to competently operate and integrate a service.
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What does internal, public, and partner evangelism efforts and requirements look like for a service, and its overall presence?
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How are developers and applications using a service showcased, and presented to the community, demonstrating the valuable around a service?
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What are the plans for deprecating a service, involved the road map and communication around the individual and overall deprecation of service(s).
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What training materials need to be developed, or already exist to support the service.
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How are all steps measured, quantified, aggregated, reported upon, and audited as part of a larger quality of service effort for each service.
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