This presentation describes the many areas of business value that APIs can enable for companies going through digital transformation. It also outlines a blueprint for how to define an effective API strategy, and how to implement the strategy through an API program.

1. How to Execute a
Successful API Strategy
A Programmatic Approach
@mattmclartybc
Matt McLarty, Global Leader of API Strategy

2. About Matt
• Global Leader, API Strategy,
MuleSoft
• API Academy alumnus
• O’Reilly SACon & API World
Program Advisory Boards
2

3. • The Digital Age
• APIs as Digital Enablers
• Implementing an API Strategy
• MuleSoft API Program Workshops & API Strategy Hub
Agenda
3

4. The Digital Age

5. The Digital Age

6. 97% of ITDMs are currently undertaking or planning to undertake
digital transformation initiatives to improve customer experience.
Digital transformation is front and center
Digital Transformation
79%
IT efficiency
70%
Business
efficiency
Top digital transformation
initiatives
IT time spent on
maintenance
instead of innovation
69%
Top digital transformation challenges
Disconnected infrastructure and systems
37
%
Resources and budget allocation 32
%
Lack of skills or experience in the IT
team
29
%

7. • Use digital technologies in all aspects
of your business
• Make your business a software
business
• Not just a business that uses software
• Improve your ability to innovate, fine
tune your operations, reimagine your
customers’ experiences
Digital Transformation

8. Digital Products
Feel like physical products...
• Serve and generate
customer demand
• Fulfill a related set of tasks
• Manufactured, released,
marketed, distributed
…but different…
• Provide an experience, not
material goods
• Can change in the
customer’s hands
• Powered and differentiated
by software

9. The Digital Supply Chain
Sourcing Manufacturing Distribution ConsumptionSales
Development
(of Digital Solutions)
Deployment
(of Digital Solutions)
Discovery
(of Data & Services)
Experience
(by customers)
Registration
(by Customers)
Industrial Supply Chain
Digital Supply Chain

10. APIs as Digital Enablers

11. Technically, a network addressable interface
to software functionality
Practically, a way to let people, devices, and
applications access your organization’s
business capabilities
What is an API?

12. Salesforce: APIs for Business Transformation
From https://history.apievangelist.com/

13. Salesforce: APIs for Business Transformation
From https://history.apievangelist.com/

14. Salesforce: APIs for Business Transformation
Salesforce introduced SaaS
as the end of software, but
recognized the potential of
web APIs for:
• Capability (CRM) migration
• Coexistence with existing
enterprise software systems
• Multichannel customer
interactions

15. Amazon: APIs for Organizational Agility

16. 1. All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.
2. Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.
3. There will be no other form of interprocess communication allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of
another team's data store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors whatsoever. The only
communication allowed is via service interface calls over the network.
4. It doesn't matter what technology they use. HTTP, Corba, Pubsub, custom protocols -- doesn't matter.
Bezos doesn't care.
5. All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable.
That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the
outside world. No exceptions.
6. Anyone who doesn't do this will be fired.
Jeff Bezos’ “API Mandate” (circa 2002):
Amazon: APIs for Organizational Agility
From Steve Yegge’s “Google Platform Rant” available at https://gist.github.com/chitchcock/1281611

17. Amazon: APIs for Organizational Agility
Reinventer of
books (Kindle)
Online reseller
of books
Online retailer
of books
Online retailer
of anything
Online reseller
of anything
(Marketplace)
Personalized
online retailer
Online retail
platform
Online fulfillment
Online identity
verification
Online platform (AWS)
Online payments

18. APIs in the Digital Supply Chain
Discovery
APIs discovered
& consumed
Developmen
t
APIs integrated
& built
Deployment
APIs published
Experience
APIs powering
customer
experiences
Registration
APIs built into
consuming apps

19. APIs: Building Blocks of Digital Transformation

20. API Monetization
Monetizing APIs is not just about pay-per-use
data exposure
Monetizing APIs is about exposing business
capabilities
to consumers whose usage drives the
provider’s business model

21. The Business Value of APIs
Increased Revenue
• New revenue streams
• Extended reach
• Value co-creation
Improved Efficiency
• Rapid partner onboarding
• Self-service integration
• Asset reuse
Higher Quality
• Customer centricity
• Analytics & awareness
• Observability
Greater Agility
• Responsiveness to market
• Crowdsourced innovation
• Technology disposability

22. An approach to supporting an organization’s digital strategy
through the use of APIs in a number of ways:
• Harnessing internal and external APIs to reimagine customer experiences
• Architecting and engineering API-led software systems to improve velocity,
agility, and evolvability
• Implementing API-based technologies to improve composability,
observability, and resilience
• Treating APIs as first class digital products by managing their full lifecycles
and cultivating product-sustaining ecosystems
API-Enabled Digital Transformation

23. Implementing an API Strategy

24. API Strategy Blueprint

25. Establish a Digital Strategy
“The biggest cause of failure in software-intensive systems
is not technical failure; it’s building the wrong thing.”
Mary Poppendieck, Founder of the Lean Software movement

26. The goal of an organization’s API strategy
is to maximize the benefits enabled by APIs
in support of the overall digital strategy
API Strategy

27. The Com4 Model
Defining the Mission
mon enemy
Co
m
mon language
Co
m
munity
Co
m
mon cause
Co
m

28. API Strategy Elements
API Product Roadmap
• Customer experiences
• Candidate API products
• Analysis & prioritization
Organizational Strategy
• Roles and responsibilities
• Practice inventory
• Cultural principles
Technology Strategy
• Capabilities inventory
• Implementation plans
• Standards & guidelines
Ecosystem Strategy
• Business models
• Developer targeting
• Partner collaboration

29. API Strategy Principles
Business as a
platform
Ecosystem
thinking
Design the
organization
Business
before tech
Go deep, not
broad
Freedom
within strict
boundaries

30. Align Organization & Culture
“Any organization that designs a system will produce a
design whose structure is a copy of the organization's
communication structure.”
Mel Conway, Conway’s Law

31. Team Structure
Center for
Enablement
(C4E)
Product
Teams
Platform
Teams
• Enterprise wide
• Focused on organizational evolution
• Teach and advise
• Drive for organizational self-sufficiency
• Cross-functional
• Business-aligned
• “Two pizza” teams, 5-7 members
• Multiple per BU
• Provide tools and platforms to product teams
• Technology stewardship
• May be enterprise wide or one per BU
• Responsibility for system-wide concerns

32. New API Roles
Business Roles
• API product manager
• API designer
• API technical writer
• API evangelist
• Developer relations
Technical Roles
• Lead API engineer
• API architect
• API DevOps engineer
Business Roles
From Continuous API Management

33. From “failure is expensive” to “fast failure is cheap”
From “change is dangerous” to “frequent, small changes are
cheap and improve overall quality”
From “the fastest solution is cheapest” to “the most valuable
solution delivers now, enables the future”
Shifting Mental Models in the Organization

34. Evaluate & Build Supporting Technologies
“Differentiation does not come from building your own API management
platform. It comes from the APIs you publish... API management
comprises a wide set of functionality.”
Gartner

35. The network addressable business capabilities within an
organization’s IT landscape
• Highest leverage view for designing and evolving the overall
system of application services
• Underlying implementation is irrelevant
• What’s in a name?
Application: focused on applied business capabilities
Network: focused on communication between components
What is an Application Network?

36. Application Network Example
Mobile Shopping
API/Service
Orders
API/Servic
e
Recommendation
s API/Service
Inventory
API/Service
Product Catalogue
API/Service
Payment
API/Servic
e
Access
Control
API/Service
Customer
Management
API/Service
Shipping
API/Service
3rd Party
Shipping
API/Service
3rd Party CRM
API/Service
Legacy
Orders
Application
Legacy IdM
Application
Mobile
Shopping
App

37. Establishing an Application Network allows an organization
to:
• Map its business capabilities and their interdependencies
• Optimize/normalize it through API-led connectivity
• Accelerate software delivery through asset discovery
Application Network Value

38. API management platform
API monitoring and analytics
API protocols, specifications, integration, composition
API security middleware
API design tools, connectors, testing tools
API catalogue, documentation, forums, developer
signup
Application Network Technology Foundation
latformP
bservabilityO
nteroperabilityI
ecurityS
ngineeringE
iscoverabilityD

39. Engage the Ecosystem
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill.
They want a quarter-inch hole.”
Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Solution

40. The collection of interconnected entities that sustain your APIs
What is an API Ecosystem?
Developer
s
Partners ToolsCustomers
APIs Apps Services Platforms

41. API Ecosystem: Salesforce

42. What drives productivity for developers using your API?
• Easy registration
• Useful documentation
• Code samples
• Test tools/sandbox environment
• Peer collaboration
• Access to help
Developer Productivity

43. Numerous win-win opportunities
• Joint ventures
• Incorporating API “parts” into a bigger product
• Aggregating disparate APIs for a new customer segment
• Platform tenancy and provision
Game changing approach
• Self-service onboarding brings higher scale, self-regulation
Partnering in the API Economy

44. API Program Workshops
API-Enabled Digital
Strategy Workshop
“Way of the API”
Workshop
API Technology
Foundation
Workshop
API-as-a-Product
Workshop
Available now!

45. Visit the new MuleSoft API strategy hub:
http://mulesoft.com/API-strategy
API Strategy Hub

46. In Summary...

47. • API strategy is about supporting a digital business strategy
through the use of APIs
• An API strategy should address 4 key areas:
• Establishing the digital strategy and the role of APIs
• Aligning the organization and culture to the “way of the API”
• Implementing a solid technological foundation
• Engaging the ecosystem of API consumers and partners
• MuleSoft offers 4 workshops to kickstart your API program
Implementing a Successful API Strategy

48. Where to Next
Join the
Integration
Keynote
Wednesday, 5:00 PM
Moscone North
Hall F
Skill Up on
Trailhead
trailhead.com/
integration
See Us on
the Road
MuleSoft.com/
events
Start Your
First API
Initiative

49. Thank you