A trimmed version for the 5x5 format at RESTFest 2014.
An overview of the Paypal PPaaS (Paypal as a Service) program. API portfolio management, goal-oriented design, design-first methodology, mocking.
API Product Managers are key, but they’re hard to find
Start with capabilities, not resources
Identify capabilities by way of use cases
Provide internal/external/partner developer portals to provide visibility
Use caution with product names
Describe for business AND developers
Inverse Conway’s Law
“Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.”
Don’t design your APIs to reflect your systems or organizations
Make your software look like your customers see you
Specification formats
Swagger, RAML, Blueprint: whatever suits you
Portal/Docs/Reference
Codegen server/client/SDK
Mocking
Consistency Validation
Respect spec storage
Separate from implementation, track minor versions on iterations
All in one place – Platform skeleton
Docs are specs too
Get API client feedback on mock APIs
Real usability is only measurable with tactile feedback
Weakness: multi-scenario and errors are hard to mock
Describe for business AND developers
Goldilocks principle
- Just right
Goldilocks principle
- Just right
Goldilocks principle
- Just right
Goldilocks principle
- Just right
Start central to create standards and practices, once it becomes habit, you