nomossoftware nomos-software.com API UX for the Developer and API Business Owner API Days, Berlin, May 2014 David Garry, CTO [email protected]
Sep 13, 2014
nomossoftware nomos-software.com
API UX for the Developer and API Business Owner
API Days, Berlin, May 2014
David Garry, CTO
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
API UX for the Developer and API Business Owner
• Intro & Overview
• Developer API UX Experience
• Business Owner API UX Experience
• Summary
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
• Number of financial services public web APIs deployed in 2012 increased more than 250% year over year -rapidly moving trend.
• By 2016 50% of banks in 'The Banker's’ top 1,000 world banks will have launched a public web apiplatform.
Gartner Nov 2013 Digital banking and the Role of APIs, App Stores and Apps.
• Telcos will be our future bankshttp://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/28075-the-telco-banks-of-the-futu
• Connectivity and convenience now expected
• By 2016 3X devices per person. 21 billion devices on the planet)
Innovation outside banks
Customer behaviour
21 billion devices
Banking is evolving – API explosion. What is driving change?
Intro - Why is API UX important for Banks?
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Intro - API UX has to consider the experience of both..
Developers..
Monetize, define contracts & service quality, manage
service delivery
Build, operate & maintain
API Business owners..
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Intro - The API UX Perspective for a Bank
API Provider[E.G – Revenue Department of government]
API Provider[E.G – Revenue Department of government]
Business Service
Composed of APIs
[E.G – Bank selling insurance to its customers]
Business Service
Composed of APIs
[E.G – Bank selling insurance to its customers]
API Provider[E.G - Internal Bank API
providing A/C details]
API Provider[E.G - Internal Bank API
providing A/C details]
End Customer
Using website or app
End Customer
Using website or app
API Provider[E.G- Public/Open API
Google maps ]
API Provider[E.G- Public/Open API
Google maps ] API Business Owners UX
Developers UX
Developers and Business Owners need tools /supports to deliver a reliable Business Service efficiently
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
API UX Developer Headaches
Monitor API status
Spot problems early thru’ continuous testing
Troubleshoot ‘unexpected behaviour’
Learn the APIs
Test the integration
Build & Test
• Poor error responses –from live systems and from sandboxes
• Poorly tested APIs
• Poor, fragmented & out of date documentation
• Slow responses from support teams
Operations
• Monitoring ALL the APIs the Business Service depends on
• Anticipating issues before they impact customers
• Troubleshooting issues when system returns poor error responses’
Maintain
• Frequent changes to APIs
• Detecting compatibility issues with upcoming API versions
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
API Lifecycle - Developer Perspective
Monitor API status
Spot problems early thru’ continuous testing
Troubleshoot ‘unexpected behaviour’
Learn the APIs
Test the integration
Monitor for upcoming API version changes
Upgrade to new API versions & test
Build & Test Operations Maintain
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Build & Test - Learning about the API
Report meaningful, useful (error) information to API user
Learning thru trial and error
Immediate contextual feedback
Integrated sandbox & documentation
Are actively maintained
Indepth testing
Features
Not ‘static’ API documentation spread across multiple locations
Captures support team’s expert knowledge, old and incorrect information is removed, is updated for new releases
Supports
API user discovers everything about how the API works
Covers all error scenarios – simulates responses. No surprises when API user sends requests to real systems.
Available 24/7 allowing developers to continuously learn & test
RuleX from Nomos Software is used to build Smart API Environments
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
API robustness is a real problem…
http://blog.parasoft.com/bid/119041/Infographic-API-Integrity-How-Buggy-Are-Today-s-APIs
Testing specialist Parasoft, 2013 report
SaaS payments testing specialist, XMLdation, identifies issues in 70% of messages from sample of 10,000
www.xmldation.com
APIs randomly change without warninghttp://techcrunch.com/2011/08/11/facebook-wins-worst-api-in-developer-survey/
Build & Test - Test the integration
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Operate - Monitoring & Testing APIs
Twitter’s “API Status” page
SmartBear’s AlertSite
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Operations - Monitoring & Testing APIs
Runscope’s Radar
Nomos Software’s Test Suites
Checking status of multiple APIs
90% faster to build business logic related tests
• Build monitoring portal for all your APIs
• Use continuous testing to catch issues
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
API UX Business Owner Headaches
• Contracts exist between different API providers and consumers. How do changes in one affect another?
• How to effectively monitor for changes to contracts?
• Visibility of contracts for ALL APIs that the Business Service depends on
API Providers
• Should each API Provider be classified according to risk? Can you rely on what the provider tells you?
• How can we be sure the data we are getting is what it is supposed to be? Reputational damage?
• Knowing if API Providers are breaching the SLAs in the contracts
Contracts Connection
• How will the Business Owner be notified when outages occur?
• Are there any Government regulatory concerns?
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Lifecycle – Business Owner Perspective
Monitor API status & quality- Is API provider meeting the
SLAs
Notify end customers of issues early
Match end customer contracts with API provider contracts
Define billing method, service quality etc
Monitor for API contract & API version changes
Project planning for API changes
Define Contract Operations Maintain
Improving tools for the developer – particularly on visibility of all APIs – will also help the business owner experience
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
API Business Owner Perspective
Business Service delivered via APIs
Contract
Governs
Service Quality
MeetsMeets
Based on TOGAF, ref https://www.amkbcloud.com/blog/?p=71
E.g. service availability = 99.99%
E.g. licensed for 5 users at company
X, billed monthly based on usage
Monetize, define contracts & service quality, manage
service delivery
Business owners
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Managing the Business Service
API Provider
API Provider
Business Service
Business Service
API Provider
API Provider
End Customer
End Customer
Contract & Service Quality here
Affect contract and Service Quality here
Managing the Business Service is not just about IT
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Possible Solutions?
Monitoring portals targeted at Business, not IT
• Showing status of APIs
• Providing options for notifying end customers of issues
• Checking SLA compliance e.g. define computer readable version of SLAs and use Nomos to run checks across usage reports and contracts
• Showing timeline for API version and contract changes
• Import.io (http://importio.brunopedro.com)[Detect license and documentation changes]
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Nomos Overview
With automated customer support portals / APIs
For complex enterprise APIs
Developers and customers learn how to use the API correctly with the self-service portal - they learn how to adhere to all the business rules
Accelerates software integration, and reduces negotiation time, data errors and rejection costs
We replace paper manuals
Used for • Customer On-boarding• Customer troubleshooting• Customer upgrading
www.nomos-software.comCopyright © Nomoséire Limited 2014 trading as Nomos Software nomossoftware
Summary
And thinking about API UX from a business owner perspectives
Thinking about API UX from a developer perspective
API Providers can help with improved support environments…
But developers also need portals where they can consolidate monitoring and testing of all APIs -and embed their own preferred tests
Business owners need consolidated views that are focused on contracts and SLAs and allow them to manage the service at a business rather than an IT level