Developers have resorted to different API management solutions to make the most of their API subscriptions. These solutions are made to help when it comes to building, implementing, publishing, monitoring, securing, and managing APIs. However, not all of them manage to make the maximum use of the value of their API management solutions due to some common mistakes that they make.
Every developer wants to make sure that their API does what they want it to do. They also want to have their APIs reaching as many people as possible and being valuable in the market. One way of doing that is by building OpenAPIs. To do that, you can convert your Postman collection to OpenAPI using APITransform. This way, it will be very easy for other developers to integrate into your API and help accelerate its growth in the market.
Nevertheless, there are some common API management mistakes that if not taken care of, might affect the growth and usage of the API. These mistakes include;
1. Unsupportive Organizational Structure
Any API management efforts are likely to be impeded by a lack of a supportive organizational structure. API teams should have the independence to choose the tools they want to use, define their technology stack, and make their own decisions to support the growth of an API program. This helps in getting an efficient decision-making process, a smooth and fast onboarding of developers, and good team agility.
In addition, with the teams being self-sufficient, it helps in creating a sense of ownership leading to empowerment and uplifting of the team’s morale. However, a situation where all the decisions are made from the top-level management may create problems with the management of an API. Such a situation leads to inflexibilities and poor communication that will, without a doubt affect the productivity of the team as well as the API management and implementation.
2. Lack of Executive Support
The success of managing and consuming APIs is dependent on good executive support. The driving force behind the adoption of APIs within an organization should be the organization’s leadership. For people to see APIs as important when it comes to the digital transformation initiatives of an organization, they need a supportive environment that is initiated by their leadership. This helps in breaking the cultural beliefs and misconceptions that hinder the successful implementation of APIs.
3. Poor API Platforms
A good API platform makes it easy to manage and coalesce APIs at scale. It also aids in abstracting the day to day administrative tasks and increasing the visibility to the performance of APIs. The platform gives one centralized governance into their APIs, making them understand the API’s changing requirements while at the same time enhancing their security. This kind of view allows developers to analyze and monitor their APIs’ usage faster and respond to any issues quickly. Developers should, therefore, choose the right platform with the comprehensive capabilities that make the tasks of managing their APIs easy and straightforward.
Finally, developers should also look out for other API management mistakes such as insufficient peripheral tooling that make an API difficult to use and manage, and lack of education and awareness that make it difficult for people in the company to appreciate the advantages of the API and support its growth. Avoiding these mistakes will make it easy for you to achieve all the goals you initially set for your API as well as make it easy for your customers to understand your API and why or when it’s worth using it.
