api-gold-standards script
Slide 1
So let's talk about Gold Standard User Stories when building APIs.
Slide 2
Planning success is all about consistent repetition. I'm sure most of you agree being agile enthusiasts. Last week in vegas I was reminded that actually Casinos do this better than almost anyone.
They are open 24x7x360 = consistency They do what they can to ensure you become lost in their environment = repetition Overtime they have somehow turned this into a business model = success
Slide 3
So what do we do. My name is Kristopher Kleva and I'm the technical lead and product owner for the L.L.Bean API Platform. We Manage APIs to help app developer adapt faster to the digital transformation that is impacting business all over.
What we try to do... well first off like most enterprises L.L.Bean has a rich collection of APIs. We start off by prioritizing the most important ones to make sure are ready for developers to consume and help them build amazing apps.
We also try to predict success. I know that may sound crazy but we've found the best path through this Journey is to clone or replicate our wins.
We do this by estimating our work not only with story points but also days, hours and minutes. They key to this prediction is to take our estimate and the sum of our time spent and forecast our team capacity.
So after you've been doing this for a while you get good at calculate averages of similar work.
Slide 4
Well does it work... I think so but I'm interesting to learn more from this community. We've been at for three years, which at 2 weeks that around 82 sprints.
But we all know it's about shipping software... so we take pride in the number of releases and the number of APIs we're added to our platform.
Consistency and Repetition also has some impact on testing.. with over 2500 automated tests we feel testing is a first class citizen.
My favorite metric out of all these is the number of app and our developer community we've built web apps, mobile apps, marketing app, apps for registers, apps to sell limited quality products, apps for interacting with Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter the Weather Channel... this list goes on.
Slide 5
So let's break it down. Our process is simple, SPEC, DEV and TEST.
Slide 6
SPECs are all about the how. API design and definition. How / if are we going to change the API and how it gets all wired up. The key to note here is that we try to pin a time to each of these sub-tasks. These original estimates and then the actual time help us forecast similar sized efforts in the future.
Slide 7
DEV is the what. Basic setup, caching, Analytics, Security, Logging all the bits and pieces on what we're planning manage. Consistency and Repetition is also a table stake in development.
Slide 8
Now we have TESTING. In my opinion one of the most important part of Consistency delivering success to our business. Testing is how we validate the definition of done. We research, review, setup data, test our specs and eventually the actual API.
Slide 9
Finally we have DEBT... and ironically we're out of time.
Slide 10
But I leave you with this... try to look within your own project and pull out the bits that you're finding you do over and over. Clone those success and account for your estimates and actual time spent.
Thanks!