Applications Programming Interface (API) projects are complex and require enough investment in terms of money and time for them to be successful. This can be explained by the unpredictable nature that comes with building new infrastructures.
Sometimes, organizations go through trials and development of prototypes to try and make sure that what they are coming up with makes sense and does what they would like it to do.
The most successful organizations take one step at a time when building their APIs, using blocks to build structures gradually. They also understand that it is vital to come up with an estimate before they start the API development project.
Most people find it difficult to estimate the costs involved in API development projects. Fortunately, it is easy to come up with a rough estimate of the amount of money and time that it is going to take.
You can do this by considering several things, among them;
API Developers
API developers are going to consume most of your resources in an API development project. You will need an experienced developer and this will not be cheap. The cost will vary depending on whether you have an in-house team or you are using contractors.
You will also need to consider ongoing costs especially due to maintenance needs. Depending on how much work is needed, you might find yourself spending a lot of money.
Fortunately, using an API developer portal, you can make things easy for your developers since they can gain access to your API documentation and other resources easily, making development and maintenance easier and cheaper.
Development Time
The development time of an API is dictated by its capabilities and functions. When you start an API development project, it is important to come up with different areas that need to be worked on.
Depending on the requirements of each of these areas, you can alter the time spent on them, something that can affect the cost of developing the API.
In addition, you need to monitor both your contractors and your in-house team and make sure that both teams have allocated enough time to develop the API. Also, making sure that there are no issues in their collaboration will reduce the cost involved in the entire project.
Database Design
This depends on whether your API will be exposing data from a database that exists or you will be required to design your own database. If your API will be exposing data from a database that does not exist, then you need to consider the cost of designing one.
Here, you will need enough money and time – because of hiring a database expert – to come up with a database structure. You will also need to load primary data to the database.
Your database experts will need to work closely with the API developers, meaning that collaboration is also important at this stage.
Research
Starting an API development project requires a lot of research. You need to make sure that you are building an API that meets your requirements as well as those of your customers or the API consumers.
For instance, you need to research the data sources that the API will expose, the requirements of any third-party services that the API will interact with, and any regulations that the API must abide by for it to function properly.
You also need to look at the recent trends changing business communication and operations to make sure that your API project will stand a chance in the market.
Prototype
A prototype is very important in an API development project. This means that your development team needs to first come up with a simple prototype of the API as fast as they can.
The prototype enables them to start testing early even during development, something that enables them to get a clear picture of how the API performs.
They can also identify errors during this stage and rectify them. The cost and time spent in building a prototype will depend on the complexity of your API.
API Documentation
API documentation plays an important role in making work easier for your API consumers or even other team members that might join your development team at a later date.
If you look at most APIs that have failed or not lived up to their expectations, you will find that chances are very high that they had poor or no documentation at all.
You, therefore, need to pay enough attention and allocate enough resources to ensure that you have detailed documentation for your API.
Security
An API is a computing interface that powers the sharing of data and communication between different applications. This means that APIs handle sensitive data that needs to be protected at all times.
You need to invest in an API security expert to guide your team on how to implement restrictions and other security parameters to ensure that you are not going to face any unauthorized access to data.
It is important to note that loss of customer data or if your customers feel that their data is not secure enough with your APIs, you are going to negatively affect its usage. In addition, chances are that you will not meet your expectations with the API.
Monitoring Dashboards
You also need to factor in the costs of coming up with a system that makes it easy for you to monitor your APIs. For instance, you can build a dashboard that provides you with statistics and real-time alerts on the performance of your APIs.
Apart from the API performance, this is important when it comes to monitoring the API feedback, HTTP response status codes, usage, and other metrics.
Marketing the API
Finally, after successfully completing the development of your API, you will need to let the world know about it. This requires a budget as well. Here, your developers might have to work together with your marketing team.
To start with, ensure that developer communities are informed about the new API and its capabilities. You also need to develop a marketing strategy and set aside a budget for it. This is important for the success of your API.
In conclusion, you need to ensure that you have allocated enough resources for your API development project to be successful.
Before starting, make sure that you know everything that the project requires as well as its cost. You can do that by considering the things discussed above.
