Every single API project I’m working on currently has one or more business users involved or specifically leading the work. With every business user, no matter how fearless they are, there is always a pretty heavy perception that some things are over their head. I see this over and over when it comes to API design, and the usage of OpenAPI to define an API. I’ve known a handful of folks who aren’t programmers, and have learned OpenAPI fluently, but for the most part, all business users tend to put up a barrier when it comes to learning OpenAPI–it lives in the realm of code and exists beyond what they are capable of.
I get that folks are turned off by being exposed to code. Learning to read code takes a significant amount of time, and with the more framework, libraries, and other layers, you can find yourself pretty lost, pretty quickly. However, with OpenAPI, everything I do tends to be YAML, making it much more readable to humans. While there are rules and structure to things, I don’t feel it is out of the realm of the average user to study, learn, and eventually bring into focus. Along with the OpenAPI rules, there is a good deal of HTTP literacy required to fully understand what is going on, but I feel like the API design process is a much more forgiving environment to learn these things for both developers and business users. https://goo.gl/5ZueYs #DataIntegration #ML
