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In the development process, one of the first things that come to our mind is the question about the “API First Development”. This may sound the same as a development approach in which the considered API is of the highest priority for development before any other application.

A lot of software firms start building an app or web application at the same time as the API for third-party companies and application integration. However, this approach is not advisable during the development process of any application.

For example, if developers working on an application also start working on the API at the same time, it creates issues since they wouldn’t know the actual request and structure of the API and might face issues with other developers as well.

A better approach is to build the API first and build your mobile or web applications on top of that API. This will force you to design an API and use it in your app so that it’s a more real-world and developer-friendly API.

Why Do We Need to Develop the API First?

1. Synched Process (Code Along with API)

In this approach, the Development Team starts coding as per their application’s core functionality without thinking about the API development. They end up creating a small application.

Now when it comes to API development the core development process majorly done here so that the API is ready for accommodating the behavior of the application’s core services. However, the API Team will not be able to retrieve information like they would be able to in a structured database.

After the API is developed, its documentation will be created. And shared with various teams for testing and deployment.

When changes are needed in the code due to bugs, improvements, or any enhancements in the application, the same development cycle repeats, and the development team will wait for the completion of API. This process wastes a ton of time for the frontend development process, and also increases the deployment time for the overall application.

Given below is an image that explains the traditional legacy approach for the development of an application:

2. API First Process

When API First Process is followed then API is developed. And instead of the code, the development process begins with the design, planning, mocks, and tests.

This allows the team to think about the project and plan out every part of it before they begin development on it. The team can develop an API as per their application and other services that they may plan to include in the app.

In this approach, the development team will be able to resolve the feedback, features, and bugs. All before the starting of the development process. It will also reduce the core development time and reduce the way to reproduce the cycle.

In the below image. You can see how not every API is connected to each other, and this allows them to work individually?

Plan API-First Program

We Need to Follow the Steps Given Below to Plan the API-First Program

• Brainstorm (Planning)
• Plan with API stockholders
• API Designing
• Automate Process
• Solve Bugs, adding features and improvement
• Define portal for Developers

These are Some Benefits of the API-First Approach

• Team can work parallel
• Clear abstraction layer
• Freedom the develop API as per multi-application
• Reduce the development cost
• Increase development speed
• Reduce the risks

Wrapping Up

Using the API-First Approach will be beneficial in your app development process. As well as in deployment on your desired deadline. Our DEV IT experts are quite familiar with the process and would recommend it to other application developers worldwide.