There are real above-the-line and below-the-line benefits that web APIs can unlock. They can make it easier for partners to build innovative applications on a variety of platforms, and increase web traffic and usage of corporate web services that can improve workforce productivity and open up new revenue channels. Development teams must ensure these APIs are aligned to business needs and that they do not pose a risk to existing corporate assets.
This phase will help you:
- Understand how your web API fits into your system architecture.
- Define high-level design details.
- Define your process workflows and business rules.
- Map the relationships among data tables through ERDs.
- Document your web API data flow diagrams.
- Identify the integration risks, security gaps, bottlenecks, and other risks in your data flow.
- Define your objects by effectively referencing your data model.
Adopting an API-enabled application ecosystem enables your organization for improving internal processes. Utilizing APIs to abstract access to backend services within your organization creates a fast-moving, flexible infrastructure for your developers to work with.