AASHTOWare OpenAPI Platform Team

About the API Platform Team

An API Platform Team is a group of professionals who are responsible for designing, developing, managing, and governing APIs across an organization. APIs are interfaces that allow different applications, systems, and devices to communicate and exchange data. An API Platform Team aims to create a consistent, secure, and scalable API foundation that can support various business needs and goals.

Some of the roles, functions, responsibilities, and key tasks of an API Platform Team are:

  • API Platform Owner: This is the leadership committee who oversees the API strategy and vision, aligns it with the business objectives and outcomes, and secures the necessary resources and support for the API Platform Team. The API Platform Owner also defines the API governance model, policies, and standards, and ensures compliance across the organization.

  • API Platform Architect: This is the technical expert who designs the API architecture, platform, and infrastructure, and ensures they meet the functional and non-functional requirements. The API Platform Architect also evaluates and selects the appropriate tools and technologies for the API platform and provides guidance and best practices to the API developers.

  • API Platform Developer: This is the software engineer who coordinates the implementation, testing, deployments, and maintains the APIs on the platform. The API Platform Developer also contributes to the API design principles, standards, and documentation, and ensures the APIs are secure, reliable, and performant.

  • API Platform Tester: This is the quality assurance specialist who verifies and validates the functionality, usability, security, and performance of the APIs on the platform. The API Platform Tester also designs and executes test cases, scenarios, and scripts, and reports and tracks any defects or issues.

  • API Platform Administrator: This is the system administrator who monitors, manages, and troubleshoots the API platform, infrastructure, and resources. The API Platform Administrator also configures and updates the platform settings, parameters, and policies, and handles any incidents or requests related to the platform.

  • API Platform Analyst: This is the business analyst who identifies, analyzes, and prioritizes the API needs and opportunities across the organization. The API Platform Analyst also gathers and documents the API requirements and specifications from various stakeholders and communicates them to the API Platform Team.

Interaction with Product Teams

The API Platform Team works with multiple product teams that own different APIs and helps them design, implement, test, document, and publish their APIs using a common platform approach. The API Platform Team also communicates and collaborates with the product teams to ensure that the APIs are consistent, secure, reliable, and scalable. The API Platform Team guides the product teams in following the API lifecycle, from ideation to retirement, and provides feedback and support along the way. The API Platform Team enables the product teams to deliver high-quality APIs that meet the needs of their consumers and stakeholders.

Our Approach to Governance

API governance and API Platform governance are the processes and collective decision-making done by stakeholders when creating and reproducing web-based APIs. They involve creating policies, rules, and conventions that allow the parties involved to work independently of one another but effectively towards the same goal. Some of the benefits of having governance formality are:

  • It reduces the risks of downtime or error codes by ensuring standardized conventions for documentation and consistent security and access control mechanisms .

  • It helps to boost user confidence and enhance the product's reputation by ensuring reliable, consistent, and high-quality APIs .

  • It facilitates the API-first architecture approach, which makes it easy for developers to add features and integrate their services with third-party applications.

  • It enables the discovery, observability, and delivery of APIs across teams, workspaces, environments, repositories, and documentation.

API governance and API Platform governance are essential for any organization that wants to leverage the power of APIs in their digital transformation journey.