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One of the core things I’ve been working on for the past 10 years is APIs — everything from simple APIs that are used by one client to multi-device and multi-purpose APIs. During those years, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with many third-party APIs like Stripe, Twilio, and others who are less popular and glamorous. Almost all of those APIs were REST-based and unique in some way. 

There are many reasons why REST is so popular. It’s simple to understand, it’s flexible, it works on any scale, it has a great community and tools built around it. But besides those, I’d also say that a lot of popularity came from the fact that’s its oldest rival, SOAP, is just horrible.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

As more companies realize the benefits of an API-first mindset and treating their APIs as products, there is a growing need for good API product management practices to make a company’s API strategy a reality. However, API product management is a relatively new field with little established knowledge on what is API product management and what a PM should be doing to ensure their API platform is successful.

Many of the current practices of API product management have carried over from other products and platforms like web and mobile, but API products have their own unique set of challenges due to the way they are marketed and used by customers. While it would be rare for a consumer mobile app to have detailed developer docs and a developer relations team, you’ll find these items common among API product-focused companies. A second unique challenge is that APIs are very developer-centric and many times API PMs are engineers themselves. Yet, this can cause an API or developer program to lose empathy for what their customers actually want if good processes are not in place. Just because you’re an engineer, don’t assume your customers will want the same features and use cases that you want.

Source de l’article sur DZONE