A collaborative project that reached new heights with the API Design-First Approach

Introduction

This case study dives into the successful implementation of a maternity and child healthcare solution, achieved through the collaborative efforts of two undergraduate teams. By integrating the API Design-First approach into their project workflow, these teams navigated challenges and created a transformative digital solution.

Background

A maternity and child healthcare solution, Maathra originated from the collaborative efforts of two undergraduate teams, each contributing two distinct applications: MomCareConnect and HealthMinder.

MomCareConnect emerged as a solution for digital health record keeping of expectant mothers and their children that offered an array of vital clinical services. From digital record-keeping to streamlined appointment scheduling, it provided a centralized platform for the healthcare management of expectant mothers and children who attend clinics.

Concurrently, HealthMinder emerged as a solution for better tracking of personal wellness, leveraging mobile technology and smartwatch integration to monitor and improve health behaviors. Its features spanned from activity tracking to mood logging and personalized health tips, catering to individuals seeking proactive health management.

Opportunities

The MomCareConnect team identified an opportunity to enhance its capabilities by integrating HealthMinder's health record API. This integration gave birth to the MomCareConnect app with the new look as Maathra with a wealth of personalized health insights, enriching its value proposition for users.

The teams also seized the opportunity to showcase Maathra in the 'Undergrad IT Challenge', highlighting its potential as a pioneering solution in maternal and child healthcare.

While working towards building Maathra app, the two teams discovered that the HealthMinder app could enhance its functionalities by leveraging MomCareConnect's patient records API. This bidirectional exchange facilitated seamless data flow between the two applications and in creating better user experience for the respective users of the applications.

Objective

• Facilitate seamless integration between the two applications
• Streamline development process
• Optimize development efforts
• Enhance collaboration among team members
• Improve scalability and flexibility of services
• Accelerate project completion

Challenge

With the two teams agreeing to work together, the HealthMinder team focused on optimizing their API for efficient data retrieval and rendering, while the MomCareConnect team worked on integrating the health tracking functionalities seamlessly to build the Maathra app.

They struggled to find a better way to reach an agreement between the two applications before development began and to provide a clear definition of one API to the other. They understood that a developer experience design (DXD) for the APIs was needed, similar to a high-fidelity mock-up that is created by a UX designer before development begins. However, they did not know how to bring their vision to life.

The Solution

During this time, the Xapi product was launched, and a session on how to implement the API Design-First approach was conducted at their university. Fortunately, the undergraduates of these two teams also participated in this session. They realized that the approach they wanted to develop the solution also aligns with the API Design-First approach that is an industry-standard. Thereby, the two teams combined to put the effort to build the solution. Thus, the team Maathra started the project with Xapi—the platform that makes the API Design-First Approach a reality!

Hereafter, they adopted the following process

1. Registration
They registered with the Xapi Undergrad Kickstart program and got eligible for a one-year free subscription plan. Thereby they started their API designing journey with Maathra Team Lead signing up with Xapi first.

2. Organization Setup
After signing up with Xapi, the Team Lead established an Xapi Organization under the name Maathra Org and tailored the organization profile to their preferences, thereby assuming the role of Organization Owner.

3. Team Onboarding

• The Maathra Team Lead (Organization Owner), through the easy-to-use Xapi Team management facility, invited the MomCareConnect Team Lead and HealthMinder Team Lead as Organization Admins.
• Thereby the Organization Admins invited all Maathra team members to register with Xapi.
• Afterwards, the Organization Admins created two Xapi Projects under Maathra Org with Kanban Board facility enabled. They named two projects as MomCareConnect Proj and HealthMinder Proj and proceeded to onboard Project Members by sending out invitations via Xapi.
• During this process, the Organization Admins assigned the roles of Designer and Reviewer to respective team members so that code verification is in-place.

4. Requirements Capture
The Team Members commenced by logging proposed API design requirements into their respective Xapi Project Backlog —they consolidated all requirements in a centralized location through the creation of individual tickets for each.

5. Requirement Management

• Upon adding tickets to their Xapi Project Backlogs, the Team Leads after discussing with the team members, set priority to each ticket and transitioned high-priority requirement tickets to the To Do state on the Xapi Kanban Board.
• Both Project Members utilized the Xapi-Git Integration to ensure collaboration, version control, and synchronization of API design work with Git repositories, enabling team productivity and project management.

6. Design Process

• The respective Project Members initiated the design of pertinent APIs upon moving tickets to the In Progress state on the Xapi Kanban Board. The Designers selected a suitable XapiAPI Template to start designing so that everything need not be done from scratch and thus saved a lot of time.
• Leveraging Xapi's capability to create reusable API Models streamlined the design process, eliminating the need for redundant code replication.
• Both Team Members collaborated more effectively, ensured consistent API design between the two applications, and identified potential integration issues early in the development lifecycle.

7. Review Process

• Following the completion of API designs, both Team Members moved them to the Review in Progress state, enabling the designated Reviewers to provide feedback. This systematic status tracking facilitated task management and comprehension of ongoing and completed activities.
• Reviewers utilized the Xapi Tooling Diff View to compare changes across commits and versions, ensuring thorough evaluation
• Reviewers also utilized Xapi Inline Comments to add comments on the API Specification itself where necessary changes were required.
• Upon completion of the changes, the API was transitioned to the Done state.

8. API Governance
The visibility provided by the Xapi API Catalog facilitated a comprehensive understanding of all APIs and API Models of Maathra at Organization Level as well as in Project Level centrally. This underpinned Maathra's API governance functions.

9. Exposing APIs for Public Access
After the successful project completion of Maathra, the Maathra Team connected with the Xapi Team to discuss on how Xapi enabled successful project completion. Upon assessing the quality of Maathra APIs, Xapi opted to make selected APIs public using Xapi API Hub, a marketplace to publish top-quality APIs. This enabled the Maathra Team to gain exposure to external parties.

Benefits:

1. Interoperability

• The Maathra Team easily designed OAS-compliant API specifications that were described in agnostic terms, decoupling them from any specific programming language. This enabled defining clear and standardized communication protocols between the two applications.
• Having OAS-compliant API designs, gave the Maathra Team a head start when initiating development. The API designs acted as blueprints for the Maathra Team to collaboratively implement the integration between the HealthMinder and MomCareConnect applications.

2. Streamlined Development

• The Maathra Team reduced development cycles and minimized rework, leading to faster project completion.
• Reusable API models helped to overcome the burden of recreating the duplicating API features.
• The Kanban Board additionally helped them to track the status enhancing the ability to govern APIs.
• The streamlined review process enabled error-free API designs.

3. Improved Collaboration

• Xapi's features, such as inline comments with reply facility enabled collaboration among Maathra Team Members and ensured alignment on the API design.

4. Efficient Change Management

• Xapi's version control capabilities allowed the teams to track changes, manage revisions, and roll back to previous versions if needed.

Feedback from a Maathra Team Member

"As a developer, I feel that the API Design-First approach with Xapi was instrumental in our project's success. By prioritizing API design and leveraging Xapi's features, we established clear communication protocols and streamlined collaboration between teams. This enabled us to complete the project on time, showcase the value of our solution in the Undergrad IT Challenge, and secure a Merit award! Overall, the API Design-First approach with Xapi gave power for us to reach new heights and deliver a successful project."

Ready to streamline your Undergrad Project's API design and development process? Unlock the potential of the Xapi and start your journey towards innovation today!

Remember, while this case study is fictional, it vividly illustrates the transformative power of an API-Design First approach in revolutionizing small-scale projects. It is based on the firsthand experiences and perspectives of developers and users of Xapi, and we believe that this will serve as a valuable resource for learning the importance of API Design-First approach.