Everyone is an API

Every industry and sector has a language all of its own. A short hand honed over many years to increase the speed of communication and information flow between parties. Unfortunately, these same terms that industry insiders find useful are the reason that new entrants struggle.

API is one such term. As a very simple example, an API will take in a request from a user, process the information required to answer this request and return a response back to the same user.

How is everyone an API then?

Everyday we take in requests from our colleagues, service providers and clients. Using our experience and knowledge we formulate an answer using our memories, spreadsheets, disparate pieces of software and possibly even pieces of paper. We return our answers using our voices, emails and chat messages, trusting that the requester understands what we have returned and that is it in a format that they can use.

Similar to a poorly designed API, at times our responses can come too late to be useful as we were working on another task. Or, we forgot a small important aspect that needed to be considered. In addition, how we deliver the answer and in what format can change from day to day.

Business logic to API

What would happen if we could turn our business logic into an API?
Core business functions typically  become repeatable, accessible and independent of a person or group of people. This means that effort does not have to scale linearly with business growth.

Embarking on this journey will cause one to think deeply about your process and will illuminate hidden assumptions and trade offs being made by you and your team. An additional benefit is that you will be able to identify points of failure and risk in your process.

Using Alis Build, it becomes simple to encode your business logic into APIs that can be made accessible to colleagues, service providers and clients. Grow your business without growing the often unconsidered burden of effective communication.