APIs are software and as such they are also a target of basic software engineering rules we are all taught for decades. Unfortunately, this fact is often ignored or forgotten and common API design process resembles an infamous waterfall model. As APIs are often sitting on boundaries between groups of developers with very different expectations and use cases, problems resulting from one-sided waterfall development are even worse than usual.

Honza’s talk will show you how to avoid waterfalls by employing iterations, prototyping, communication with client developers and testing. The last part of the presentation will be focused on how API Blueprint and its ecosystem fit into this concept and how they help to deliver APIs the right way.