API Dependency Management: the neglected child of app development

Although APIs are really, really great, many developers are unaware of the technical and non-technical risks associated with using them. When an API is integrated into an application, it becomes a new dependency that requires careful management. Failing to do so could result in unpredictable behaviour, broken applications, and significant trouble. While one dependency might not be such a big issue, the amount of APIs being used per application is rapidly growing, creating spaghetti-like API landscapes. This is where ‘API Dependency Management’ comes in.

In this talk, we’ll discuss APIs from a consumer point-of-view; the benefits of having an up-to-date API landscape, the potential risks that APIs introduce into your applications, and how you can mitigate these risks by managing your API dependencies. We’ll talk about dealing with different API lifecycle phases, versions and other best practices of integrating APIs. Additionally, we’ll give some insights in real-life API disruptions based on our own experiences as both an API provider and an API consumer, and what we did to prevent these incidents in the future.