The Platform Era7 steps to a great API

Aline Paponaud

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About me• Aline Paponaud, CTO at • 8 years a developer• Passionate about software & organizations• Building a Platform

“The platform Era”: a whitepaper I wrote at Sfeir

The Platform Era

1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations

2. What we did at ONprint

3. 7 steps to a great API3

1.About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations

2. What we did at ONprint

3. 7 steps to a great API

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The story begins

5t

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“I want SAAS software… You know, it’s so Silicon Valley.”Manu, cool entrepreneur

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“Let’s be the new Uber for <insert business case here>”Jean-Michel, innovation manager

Marketing Team: A connected world

8Image Source: https://datafloq.com/read/how-big-will-the-internet-of-things-be/523

Dev Team: A Web API

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Dev Team: A REST Web APIService:GetWeatherByUserAndCity?u=nico&c=grenoble

Resource:GET users/nico/cities/geneve/weather

GET weather?u=nico&c=grenoble10

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Public Web APIs

Public Web APIs

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We all say the same thing

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From vertical to horizontal

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1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations

2.What we did at ONprint

3. 7 steps to a great API

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One use case

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Another one…

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Losing control

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The solution

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Lessons learned

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1. About APIs, SAAS and Digital Transformations

2. What we did at ONprint

3.7 steps to a great API

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7 steps1. Share a vision2. Prepare the team3. Learn4. Identify Resources5. Customer Driven Development6. Build the back-end7. Design the front-ends

Step 1: Share a vision

23Image Source: http://www.kolibree.com/fr

Step 2: Prepare the team

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Step 3: Learn

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GETPUTPOSTDELETE

Step 4: Identify Resources

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Step 5: Customer Driven Dev

Step 6: Build the back-end

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Step 7: Design the front-ends

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7 steps1. Share a vision 2. Prepare the team 3. Learn 4. Identify Resources 5. Customer Driven Development 6. Build the back-end 7. Design the front-ends

Selling a Platform

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It’s bigger than us

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Thank youQuestions?

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References• R. Fielding, Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software

Architectures, 2000• M. Fowler, Richardson Maturity Model, 2010• R. Fielding, UC Irvine et al., Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTP/1.1, 1999• J. Barthe, Introduction à HATEOAS, 2013• A. Osmani, Patterns for Large-Scale JavaScript Application Architecture, 2011• D. Hardt, The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework• A. Dsouza, J. Kabbedijk et al., Software-as-a-service : Implications for business

and technology in product software companies, PACIS 2012 Proceedings Pacific Asia Conference on Information, 2012

• D. Durkee, Why cloud computing will never be free, Communications of the ACM, v.53 n.5, 2010

• L. Murphy, SAAS Pricing Strategy : The 10x Rule, 2012• B. Iyer, M. Subramaniam, The Strategic Value of APIs, 2015 34