APIs are use case driven

Last Update: 29.10.2018. By Jens in Newsletter

I mentioned in my last email that I strongly believe back-end devs should have some knowledge and understanding of UIs aka front ends. They don’t need to be super at it but have some reasonable understanding. Why?

It reduces fraction between two sides of the same coin. Back-end devs usually see only their part and tend to build an API of any kind in a back-end focused way. However, often that’s too technically centered. The think too much in models and structures and less in use cases aka what is the party using your service actually doing with it. What outcome do they want to produce?
And what obstacles are they facing?

UIs are as complex and back-end. It’s not always pixel-pushing. And it is as important as your back-end :-)

When you care for the use cases and the API users, e.g. a frontend, you will remove your backend-tunnel-vision and start noticing a few things like:

• how your technical solution does not solve that use case at all
• how your decisions place burdens on other devs
• things easy to do in a back-end can be a pain to solve in the front-end, so it might make more sense to adapt your API
• that the purpose of an API is to make a particular set of use cases easy for the user, not for the dev of the back-end.

Besides, if you understand the other side and their thinking, it makes working together much more pleasing. Same with the biz guys :-)