(4) About Me

• Ph.D. in Communications Systems [http://dret.net/netdret/publications#wil97b] from ETH Zürich [http://www.ethz.ch/] (1997)
• Research at ETH Zürich [http://www.ethz.ch/] (1997-2006) and UC Berkeley [http://www.berkeley.edu/] (2006-2011)
• EMC (2011-2014), API architecture for Documentum workflow products
• Siemens (2014-2015), working on the Web of Things (APIs for IoT)
• Part of CA [http://www.ca.com/]'s API Academy [http://www.apiacademy.co/] 2016-2019 focusing on API Design and Management
• Partner at Good API [https://www.goodapi.co/] in 2019 focusing on Digital Transformation and API Strategy
• Joined Axway [https://www.axway.com/]'s Catalysts [https://www.axway.com/services/catalysts] in 2019 for driving the Accelerate program [https://accelerate.axway.com/]
• Active in the usual places such as Twitter [http://twitter.com/dret], GitHub [http://github.com/dret], and LinkedIn [http://www.linkedin.com/in/netdret]

(5) Axway [https://www.axway.com/] Catalysts [https://www.axway.com/catalysts]

• Small team with three core missions
  • Improve customer success by helping to make good decisions
  • Provide thought-leadership in the API and digital transformation space
  • Improve Axway by following the principles that we preach
• Team members are distributed globally
  • Uli Hitzel: @u1i [http://twitter.com/u1i]
  • Kay Lummitsch: @lummitsch [http://twitter.com/lummitsch]
  • Emmanuel Methivier: @e_methivier [http://twitter.com/e_methivier]
  • David Morgan
  • Brian Otten: @bottencatalyst [http://twitter.com/bottencatalyst]
  • Brian Pagano: @brianpagano [http://twitter.com/brianpagano]
  • John Wiese
  • Erik Wilde: @dret [http://twitter.com/dret]

(6) Continuous API Management (2018)

• Continuous API Management: Making the Right Decisions in an Evolving Landscape
  • O'Reilly book page [https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/continuous-api-management/9781492043546/]
  • Amazon book page [https://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Api-Management-Decisions-Landscape/dp/1492043559]
• Authored by 2018 API Academy [http://www.apiacademy.co/] members
  • Mehdi Medjaoui: @medjawii [http://twitter.com/medjawii]
  • Erik Wilde: @dret [http://twitter.com/dret]
  • Ronnie Mitra: @mitraman [http://twitter.com/mitraman]
  • Mike Amundsen: @mamund [http://twitter.com/mamund]

(8) Digital Transformation is Global

(9) Digital Transformation Definition

Digital Transformation means adapting an organization's strategy and structure to capture opportunities enabled by digital technology. (Nathan Furr and Andrew Shipilov, Digital Doesn't Have to Be Disruptive, Harvard Business Review 97(4), July/August 2019, pp. 94-103) [https://hbr.org/2019/07/digital-doesnt-have-to-be-disruptive]

(10) The Need for Speed

• Digital value chains must be easy to create and change
• Modularizing complex systems is a tough problem
• APIs are the interfaces between the modules
  • The goal is to create good APIs for a good modularization
  • It's possible to create good APIs for bad modularization
  • It's possible to create bad APIs for good modularization

(11) What's Happening?

(12) A Closer Look

(13) APIs and Value Chains

• Digital value chains are connected by APIs
• Value-aligned APIs make it easier to build and change value chains
• APIs are the machine language of digital transformation
  • API designers are in charge of minimizing value friction
  • Each API should clearly state its value proposition
  • Business value should always have API representation

(14) The Process

• Assessment uses analyses and observations
  • Figuring out the status quo
  • Repeated assessments for correcting course
• Enablement addresses identified gaps
  • Addressing gaps on the strategy/platform level
  • Trainings and workshops for enabling teams
• Coaching for continuous architecting
  • Regular conversations about success and strategy
  • Monitoring trends and tagging them for consideration

(15) The Pillars

• Business is based on digital value chains
  • Understand the business as inherently digital
  • Engage in conversations around digital products
• Organization has to reflect business goals
  • There is no escaping Conway's Law [http://melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html]
  • There is no escaping Goodhart's Law [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law]
• Technology has to provide the foundation
  • APIs are necessary but not sufficient for digital transformation
  • API initiatives need to be part of orchestrated activities

(17) API Program Components

1. Vision and strategy [API Strategy (1)] set by leadership
2. API guidelines [API Guidelines (1)] as a way to share and evolve practices
3. Team structure and organization determine solution structure
4. API platform as a marketplace to contribute and share
5. Enablement as a way to make everybody effective

(18) Program as a Product

• Avoid waterfall design for your API program
  • Start small with motivated teams of pioneers
  • Establish and stabilize practices with teams of settlers
  • Scale and mature the practice with some town planners
• For inspiration look at the Web's fundamental stability
  • Its protocol was able to scale from 10 to 10 billion participants
  • Its delivery switched from non-graphics to mobile high-end devices
  • Its infrastructure switched from desktops to cloud data centers
  • It abstracts implementation (language/storage) details
• Manage your API program so that nothing is hardcoded

(19) API Momentum

• Top-Down initiatives
  • Driven by leadership often combined with some re-organization
  • Biggest typical problem is lack of comprehensive strategy/program
  • Generic advice: Avoid narrow focus and look at all necessary aspects
• Bottom-Up initiatives
  • Driven by IT to improve business agility and speed
  • One typical problem is lack of alignment/communications with business
  • Another typical problem is external/internal conflation
  • Generic advice: Identify low-hanging fruit for demonstrating value

(33) API Program Success

• Focus on making autonomous teams more effective
• Focus on quality (value) over quantity (volume)
• Drive APIs all the way to visible business value
• Manage guidelines as a shared API culture compass
• Design for change so that the API program itself is agile

(34) Thank You!

• Slides online: dret.net/lectures/oreilly-sa-ny-2020 [http://dret.net/lectures/oreilly-sa-ny-2020]
• More information:
  • Twitter: @dret [http://twitter.com/dret]
  • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/netdret [http://www.linkedin.com/in/netdret]
  • Web: dret.net/netdret/ [http://dret.net/netdret/]