Do you know if there are gaps, pain points, or inefficiencies in your company’s API workflow? Sometimes they’re glaring and demand attention.
Other gaps can be more subtle and harder to identify — and correct. If you’re looking for ways to improve your API process, the best way to get started is by asking the right questions.
Here are some of the most important questions to ask when you’re looking to improve your workflows:
1. Does your company practice design-first API development?
Design-first is widely acknowledged as the most efficient and productive approach to building APIs. This 2021 State of the API Report notes that 87% of API practitioners are working toward a design-first approach. While it’s true that design-first is the best way to go, development can also be one of the easier facets of creating an API program.
One crucial piece of information most of our competitors don’t tell you is that building a successful API program often requires significant organizational change. Development processes must be completely revamped to shift to design-first, and Stoplight is one of the very few development platforms that are already designed to integrate into and enrich these processes.
When utilized by a design-first organization, Stoplight empowers companies to efficiently create effective, consistent APIs and documentation simultaneously. In turn, this outcome helps our customers achieve their business goals faster and more effectively.
2. Does your API platform have comprehensive capabilities?
Developing APIs involves a lot more than coding. And good platforms include tools to fold other critical activities, such as documentation, mocking, and governance, into the process. Any of these activities that are missing from the API process leave a major gap that will cause inefficiencies and problems down the line — including issues with security, usability, and customer adoption.
Stoplight is a comprehensive API platform tailored for design-first API programs. Our platform addresses the API lifecycle and integrates open-source tools for documentation, mocking, and governance with lead-design tooling to fill your API lifecycle gaps:
- Elements, Stoplight’s next-generation documentation tool, helps developers build customized, interactive API documentation with embeddable web components — as they build the API.
- Prism is a mocking tool that helps developers and API teams coordinate and collaborate more effectively than ever before.
- Stoplight also developed a linting tool called Spectral, which helps API teams improve the quality of API governance. Spectral also includes a programmatic style guide to provide linting during API development.
Together with the other tools provided within the platform, Stoplight can help you design, build, and document airtight APIs.
3. Is your API program scalable — and what does that even mean?
There are a few ways to look at scalability. In one instance, it might mean how high (or low) the ceiling is for your program. APIs are only as useful as the technologies they connect with, so scalability may pertain to the partners your program has in place. Do you have the right partners to drive the adoption of your API?
The economy of scale is another lens through which to view scalability. Good API platforms include reusable components that can be shared across development teams, providing them with consistent resources and building blocks, which reduces development costs. The cost per API will fall significantly when consistent, well-crafted components are shared across the organization.
Scalability can also relate to workspace functionality and having room to grow. Does your current platform limit the number of users, and is it flexible enough for your program to grow without breaking the bank?
APIs can have a steep learning curve for companies finding their way, and the process often begins with an API manager and a small team. With Stoplight, customers can start small — rather than committing to a one-size-fits-all solution that would be expensive overkill out of the gate.
Stoplight’s Free package includes the basics, and our Starter package costs less than $80 per month. Our customers can start as small as they need to and scale up over time, as their API program grows in complexity, stakeholders, developers, and projects. Also, Stoplight does not cap the number of users allowed, unlike many other API platforms.
4. Is your API platform locked down and restrictive?
Or are you flexible and free to build your API program as you see fit?
If the platform you’re currently using is overly restrictive or doesn’t let you control your data, that’s a big red flag waving at you. Platforms based on proprietary tools can hamper a company’s ability to grow, evolve, and iterate its API program. Worse, they can create dependency — so their customers are stuck with them for the long haul, even if their products underperform.
An open-source platform precludes both of those undesirable outcomes. With an open-source approach, you can realize many benefits:
- Data ownership: Our customers own their APIs, and there is no risk of being locked into proprietary software.
- Continuous improvement of our products: As the open-source community continually innovates, so do our products.
- Tooling flexibility: Developers can bring their favorite tools into the platform.
The outcome of using an integrated, open-source platform is that you actually own your API program — with no strings attached and no caveats — all in one seamless place. After all, if you don’t own the data, you really don’t own the program.
5. How much of your API workflow is automated?
Ever find yourself reinventing the wheel? If your API team is rewriting similar code over and over again, your API program has an automation gap.
Keystrokes are expensive — and increasingly unnecessary if you have a good API platform. This video demonstrates the advantages of Stoplight over traditional code-first platforms, such as Swagger.
Stoplight’s Git is another automation resource for API programs. Git is a version control system that tracks the changes within an API and helps people and teams collaborate more efficiently. When developers elect to publish APIs through Git Projects, for example, automation tools such as Webhooks and Git Tasks are enabled. These tools facilitate seamless integration across API development teams and reduce both labor costs and coordination problems.
Let’s Close the Gaps Together
Do any of these questions expose gaps in your API workflow? If so, feel free to reach out to us or tweet us @stoplightio. We’ve helped hundreds of companies address gaps in their API programs, and we can help you.
Stoplight will get your organization further, faster than any other platform on the market — and we’ll make the trip a lot smoother, too. Get on board the best API platform!
