Does your team ever struggle to define use cases for new APIs? Looking for tips on how to get all stakeholders in agreement early on in the API design process.
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Getting everyone to agree is hard when the design and reasoning are not well defined. Need to tie the reasoning to the business. Use cases that deliver business value are normally tied into the business by using these three buckets:
- Driven by well-formulated business initiatives
- Driven as a result of industry or government changes
- Technical enablers
Yes, my team sometimes struggles to define use cases for new APIs. This is because there are often multiple stakeholders with different needs and requirements.
Here are a few tips on how to get all stakeholders in agreement early on in the API design process:
Start by understanding the needs of the stakeholders. What are they trying to achieve with the API? What data do they need to access? What are the performance requirements?
Create a use case document that outlines the requirements of the API. This document should be clear and concise, and it should be shared with all stakeholders.
Hold a workshop with the stakeholders to discuss the use case document. This is a chance to get feedback and to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Iterate on the use case document based on the feedback from the stakeholders. Once everyone is in agreement, the API can be designed and implemented.

Well, as for new cases to model a new API on, my team might initially have hiccups but a deeper understanding of all that the client needs, it becomes a breeze. We usually would have done similar project in the past, hence we just modify accordingly to suit requirements. Where the major challenge comes is when some stakeholder that were initially left out decides to tumble the requirements overnight even after