APIs are a piece of technology, but they do have a business purpose and a user, or rather a developer experience which makes them either good or horrible to use and develop. Without great business-oriented APIs, there can be no API economy. In general lean architecture methods exist but are not used enough. They are useful for DevOps and Agile development, but APIs need special attention. There is a need for a “double loop” of DevOps with APIs, that’s one thing. The more important thing is to use methods which help you to treat your API as a product while covering all important business model and architecture areas. Discussions and collaboration is the key to any successful architecture. Still, many of us design our APIs and software in endless meetings or alone, using no methods at all or methods and language known only by IT professionals. The world could do with a lot of better API designs which translate into better business. These were all reasons to develop the creative-commons licensed open and lean APIOps Cycles method (www.apiopscycles.com). This talk tells the basics of the method, plus some examples of how companies have used it.

1. Lean Method for Building Good APIs
for Business – APIOps Cycles
Marjukka Niinioja, Osaango & APIOps Community #AustinAPISummit
@miinioja @apiopscycles

2. What I have done and still do…
 API, Enteprise & Information Architect
 API Product Manager
 Developer
 Manager
 Project manager
 API management vendor
 Consultant (ERP, API, Business
Strategy)
 Trainer
 Speaker
 Author
 Consulted, trained or advised 200
companies and public
organizations on APIs,
microservices, integrations and
Developer experience
 Consulting & training currently Finnish
government, companies and
enterprises in Platform & API Economy
 Organizing API & Platform economy
related events
 Experience with multiple API
management, integration & API tools
+ programming APIs
 Founding partner of Osaango.com
@miinioja @apiopscycles

3. Most of the material is on the
APIOps Cycles site, blogs
and API Economy 101 book
@miinioja @apiopscycles

4. I wish someone had given me a magic
API wisdom pill 10-20 years ago…
Photo by OhTilly on Unsplash

5. APIs –
Art or
Science
?
Photo by John Gibbons on Unsplash
@miinioja @apiopscycles

6. Method ?
Expert
MotivationSkills
Tapping into my M.Ed. training…
@miinioja @apiopscycles

7. And into research, practice and business domains
In the scarce world of
API research, this
provides important view
on APIs, from global
economy point of view.
How can we make APIs
more widely adopted?
@miinioja @apiopscycles

8. Source: Huhtamäki & al. Visualizing the Geography
of Platform Boundary Resources: The Case of the
Global API Ecosystem
Amount of APIs
correlates with
Global Startup Index
and economic
growth areas.
APIs thrive in cultures
where user-centered
design is dominant.
Mashups combining
several APIs require
certain amount of
co-location and
mindset for marketers
and developers to
co-create.@miinioja @apiopscycles

9. The Cycle

10. Why do APIs need their own
method????
LET’S LOOK AT 7 REASONS
@miinioja @apiopscycles

11. Why is a lean
process important?
1
To minimize waste
and do things right
the first time
Else the docs don’t
match the reality,
like in this case…
@miinioja @apiopscycles
If you weren’t in the conf: when
making my shirt they put the
sleaves upside down and did a
lot of other “bad process”
mistakes

12. THIS MAKES
COMMON
SENSE?
BUT IN FINNISH
WE CALL IT…
MAALAISJÄRKI =
“Village sense”
2
@miinioja @apiopscycles

13. And we all come
from different
villages…
@miinioja @apiopscycles

14. POST /meet
Accept-Language: fi-FI
“Hello”: “Moi”
Response:
Status code: 200 OK
“Location”: “Helsinki”
“Hello”: “Moi”
Response:
Status code: 200 OK
“Location”: “Tampere”
“Hello”: “Moro”
Response:
Status code: 200 OK
“Location”: “Lappland”
“Hello”: “Hei”
@miinioja @apiopscycles

15. POST /add
POST /del
Hand-written
documentation
200 attributes for payload “just
because we have them”
Sensitive information in URI and
Query parameters
When we get new API users, we need to boot our
servers to give them access
“Basic auth is just fine”Not validating
specfiles
And we also copy-paste bad APIs… That’s
why it’s a technical jungle out there…
3
@miinioja @apiopscycles

16. If we don’t build
the APIs with the
right method…
4
@miinioja @apiopscycles

17. We’ll lose leaway in development and waste time
and money during API lifetime.
Difference between “normal software project” and one using API Consumer
interviews and Prototyping introduced by APIOps Cycles
6 month project time line
The “Oh s**t, they can’t use the API like this” -moment
✓
⛔
@miinioja @apiopscycles

18. 5
@miinioja @apiopscycles

19. @miinioja @apiopscycles

20. API is... Description Example Type of API
Important feature of a tangible
product
API is part of a tangible product or productized
service. Customer gets the API as part of the
deal when buying the product.
Internet of Things (IoT) APIs for controlling and
analyzing state of things like home appliances
or sensors
Partner or public, sometimes
also private
Productized service
API in itself is a productized service, offered to
all customers in the same way
Translation APIs, Payment APIs Public API
Part of a digital or real-world
service
API is part of the service experience, for
example maintenance service is ordered with
an API, or you can monitor package delivery
with an API
Logistics API Partner or Public API
Customer-specific service
API is part of a service offered to customers as
a tailor-made solution including for example
an integration to a service providers system.
APIs in customer specific applications Partner
Interface to resources
API is just a means to access a resource the
company is selling
Company info APIs (risk category, owners,
contact information).
Cognitive APIs etc.
Open data APIs, Partner
APIs
Interface to platform (boundary
resource)
API is a means to connect with a platform and
get added value through participation in the
interconnecting relationships of the platform (in
Platform Economy business model)
Online auction API, Apartment sharing API Partner or Public
Part of an integration
API is means to connect in to applications and
devices
Product API, Employees API, business
transactions API
Internal or partner API
@mniinoja Niinioja Marjukka. 2018. Translated and revised version. Published in a book about API Economy (Finnish) by
Moilanen, J., Niinioja, M., Seppänen, M., Honkanen, M. API-talous 101, Alma Talent
Is API a Product, Service, Integration or Something Else?

21. Don’t know what the
customers would use
it for… I need the
Force APIOps Cycles!
Sell our API or else…
@miinioja @apiopscycles

22. Available for
anyone to
register?
Paid support
available for
adopting API?
Pay for usage?
Open license for
data?
Open Data Interface Yes Yes Maybe Yes
Open API
Public API Yes Yes Maybe Maybe
Partner API No Yes Maybe No
Internal and Private APIs No No No No
@mniinioja API category cheat sheet: Marjukka Niinioja & Jarkko Moilanen 2018
6

23. 7
@miinioja @apiopscycles

24. 8

25. API =
All People are
Important
But do all
these people
even make a
difference
between an
App and an
API?
9

26. Release both API
interface and code
which implements it
Release both API
interface and code
which implements it
Monitor API
performance, code,
developer
experience &
business metrics
Monitor API
performance, code,
developer
experience &
business metrics
Configure API
interface,
management &
code environment
Configure API
interface,
management &
code environment
Create, verify and
package API
interface & code
which implements it
Create, verify and
package API
interface & code
which implements it
Plan API business
model, API consumer
requirements,
interfaces, API mgmt,
code
Plan API business
model, API consumer
requirements,
interfaces, API mgmt,
code
DevOps cycle y Kharnagy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 – APIOps changes by @mniinioja
APIs need 2x DevOps 10
@miinioja @apiopscycles

27. APIOps CyclesTM
https://www.apiopscycles.com/
For lean and business oriented API
Development
@miinioja @apiopscycles

28. About the method
 Developed in 2017 at Digia Plc, updated version published in
12/2018 by Osaango
 Licensed with CC-BY-SA 4.0 open license
 Maintained and developed further by APIOps community backend
by Osaango Ltd
 Used in many public and private organizations, from small to
enterprise size
 Purpose is to bring collaborations, DevOps mind set, business needs,
developer experience and lean thinking to API development.
@miinioja @apiopscycles

29. API Economy runs on ecosystem
customer journeys
 Analytics
and
content
APIs
 Awareness APIs
 Sense APIs
 Market place APIs
 Search engine APIs
 Product APIs
 Ordering
APIs (own,
partner
customer)
 Payment APIs Logistics APIs
@miinioja @apiopscycles

30. Business models and
business model canvases
are well known by the
business people and
designers, as is Lean
Startup
@miinioja @apiopscycles

31. Minimum Viable API Architecture
Prototype
Just
enough
Scale
API Audit Checklist collects all the rookie mistakes
usually done with designing APIs, even by
otherwise experienced developers.
It’s great for improving the Developer Experience,
security, metrics and API mgmt adoption. And
helps in onboarding newbie API developers
@miinioja @apiopscycles

32. Everyone hates NFRs so why not make them as easy and business user
friendly – main thing is you consider them per API & Customer journey
@miinioja @apiopscycles

33. Connecting APIs with business and
user goals
 Business strategy, IT strategy, API strategy
 Service / Project goals
 Customer journey or business process
 Value proposition -> API Value Proposition Canvas
 Business model -> API Model Canvas
 Canvases can and should be used for identifying the APIs that you
don’t have to or shouldn’t build
@miinioja @apiopscycles

34. Consulting Partners
 Certified Premium Partner
 Certified Partner
 Community members
@miinioja @apiopscycles

35. API consumer’s customer experience –
www.apieconomy.info with
Developer journey
AWARENESS
”I need a
image
detection API
”
ENGAGEMENT
”Hmm… there
seems to be
many visual
recognition
APIs that might
fit my needs”
COMPARISON /
NURTURE
”I’ll compare
these APIs: who
else is using,
what
languages,
features,
revenue,
support”
TRANSACT
”How do I
get access
to it and use
it”
”Do I need to
pay, how &
when do I
pay?”
USAGE
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS
”How do I
get support?”
ADVOCACY
“This is a
great API, we
should use
this for all of
our projects!”
“You should
try this too, I’ll
make a
tutorial
video”
PREVIOUS
EXPERIENCE
FUTURE
EXPERIENCE
PRE-
PURCHASE
TOUCH POINTS
PURCHASE OR
ADOPTION
TOUCH POINTS
POST-
PURCHASE
TOUCH POINTS
Niinioja, M. (2018) adapted from picture “Current customer experience” in article by Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C.
(2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.
FEEDBACK (Qualitative and quantitative, technical and satisfaction, f.eg. API
requests, errors, support requests, Conversion rate, drop-out, MRR, NPS, CES)
Channels (brand owned, partner owned, customer owned, social):
Search engines, cloud platforms, API market places, blogs, social media,
company website, company’s developer center, extranet, intranet
@miinioja @apiopscycles

36. Get started or contact for partnership or training!
www.apiopscycles.com
Contact via:
LinkedIn
Twitter @mniinioja or
@apiopscycles
info@osaango.com