{"id":22765,"date":"2021-06-17T16:18:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T20:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/?p=22765"},"modified":"2025-05-15T17:51:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T17:51:43","slug":"strategies-for-designing-building-and-delivering-apis","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/insights\/blog\/strategies-for-designing-building-and-delivering-apis\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategies for Designing, Building and Delivering APIs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your API development process will dictate whether you can maintain the speed limit all the way through or whether you will hit a few speed bumps. If you don\u2019t implement a well-thought-out process or don\u2019t use any process at all, you will likely find yourself repairing many flat tires!<\/p>\n

On the other hand, a methodological standard process helps you deliver quality APIs. You will experience fewer defects, shorter delivery times, and faster time to value.<\/p>\n

In this article, we examine three of the key phases of the API development process. From Designing to Building to Delivering, each step has certain strategies you will want to follow.<\/p>\n

Designing APIs: Careful Planning Before Coding<\/h2>\n

The first step in designing APIs is to examine the mission you hope to accomplish. This includes defining your users. They could be existing customers, potential customers, strategic partners, internal developers, external developers, or perhaps a combination of audiences. You also want to consider their backgrounds\u2014such as mobile app development, enterprise app development, and\/or IT operations\u2014and unique requirements.<\/p>\n

From there, consider the challenges you are trying to solve for your users or the opportunity you hope to give them. Perhaps it\u2019s a more efficient process for them to drive a business workflow by connecting with one of your application services. Or you may have a revenue opportunity they can tap into. For the challenge you propose to solve, or the opportunity you offer, it\u2019s also good to identify specific use-cases your API will support.<\/p>\n

Then look inwardly\u2014what\u2019s the value of the API<\/a> to your organization? By defining the internal benefits, you set the stage for getting the resources and emotional buy-in you need from your team as well as business leaders to help drive the project to a successful conclusion.<\/p>\n

You can then delve into designing the API with the necessary syntax and code to make the API visually appealing. You also want to provide an interface that helps end-users understand how the API works<\/a> and how to integrate with the API. This involves providing the structure of resources and the documentation of your resources.<\/p>\n

An effective API design will be easy to work with, and its operations can be quickly memorized by developers. As a result, incorrect code is less likely to occur.<\/p>\n

A strong design also gives you a blueprint for what your API wants to achieve and streamlines implementation. You will also avoid complicated configurations while making sure there\u2019s adherence to naming schemas.
\n[adinserter name=”API-ebook-offer”]<\/p>\n

Building REST APIs: Standards Boost Efficiency<\/h2>\n

The most common approach for building web and mobile APIs is REST (Representational State Transfer). REST provides data as representations of resources and uses a variety of data formats including JSON, XML, HTML, and plain text. Requests can be cached, and no detailed contracts are needed.<\/p>\n

REST is a flexible architectural style with loose guidelines, but there are certain constraints that define a REST architecture:<\/p>\n