The Align Define Design Refine is the four major phases we go through. It's really applying the agile manifesto principles right into this design process without being too front loaded or too heavyweight. And it allows us to have that design first approach so we can talk about the design, look at how we would integrate with it, make sure it's gonna hit the mark and we haven't missed anything. Then we can go write our code and do what we do best there in the delivery phases.
“API design centers on effective communication, not just between developers, but also communication that combines product thinking, business, and technology all in one."
James Higginbotham is the author of “Principles of Web API Design” and an executive API consultant. In this episode, James explained why it is extremely important to design APIs properly and shared the five key important principles of API design taken from his book. James also recommended the API Design-First approach–a rapid & lightweight outcome-based API design process–to design and deliver APIs successfully, including the ADDR process and establishing API boundaries (in relation to DDD). Towards the end, James shared some recommendation for API testing strategies and also some anti-patterns that we should avoid.
Listen out for:
- Career Journey - [00:05:00]
- Principles of Web API Design Book - [00:06:46]
- Importance of Designing API Properly - [00:08:17]
- Principle 1: API Should Never be Designed in Isolation - [00:13:13]
- Principle 2: Outcome-Based Focus - [00:15:10]
- Principle 3: Design Elements That Matches the Needs - [00:17:44]
- Principle 4: API Documentation as UI for Developers - [00:22:53]
- Principle 5: APIs are Forever - [00:27:52]
- API Design First Approach - [00:31:43]
- ADDR Process - [00:34:43]
- API Boundaries and DDD - [00:38:56]
- Testing APIs - [00:43:51]
- 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:44]
_____
James Higginbotham’s Bio
James Higginbotham is a software developer and architect with over 25 years of experience in developing and deploying apps and APIs. He guides enterprises through their digital transformation journey, ensuring alignment between business and technology through product-based thinking to deliver a great customer experience. James engages with teams and organizations to help them align their business, product, and technology strategies into a more composable and modular enterprise platform. James also delivers workshops that help cross-functional teams to apply an API design-first approach using his ADDR process. His work experience includes banking, commercial insurance, hospitality, and the airline industry where he helped a startup airline off the ground – literally.
Follow James:
Our Sponsor
Are you looking for a new cool swag?
Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online.
These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available.
Check out all the cool swags by visiting https://techleadjournal.dev/shop.
Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/64.
