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Automating API Delivery: APIOps with OpenAPI
Improve speed, quality, AND cost by automating your API delivery process!
Automating API Delivery shows you how to strike the perfect balance between speed and usability by applying DevOps automation principles to your API design and delivery process. It lays out a clear path to making both the organizational and technical changes you need to deliver high-quality APIs both rapidly and reliably.
In Automating API Delivery you’ll learn how
Enforce API design standards with linting Automate breaking-change checks to control design creep Ensure accuracy of API reference documents Centralize API definition consistency checks Automate API configuration deployment Conduct effective API design reviews
Author Ikenna Nwaiwu provides comprehensive guidance on implementing APIOps in your organization. He carefully walks through the technical steps and introduces the essential open-source tools, with practical advice and insights from his years of experience. You’ll benefit from his personal tips for avoiding common pitfalls and challenges of moving to automated API delivery.
Foreword by Melissa van der Hecht.
About the technology
Create high quality, consistent, and fast-to-market APIs by automating the development process! This innovative book shows you how to apply established Continuous Delivery and DevOps principles along the whole API lifecycle, transforming a collection of individual tasks into a smooth, manageable pipeline that supports automated testing, iterative improvement, and reliable documentation.
About the book
Automating API Delivery introduces the tools and strategies behind APIOps. You’ll discover tools and process improvements that give you important quick wins, including API governance using the Spectral API linter and establishing an efficient CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions. You’ll even discover how to use the powerful OpenAPI Generator to automatically create client and server code from your API definitions.
What's inside
Check for breaking changes with oasdiff Create SDKs using OpenAPI Generator Maintain accurate documentation with API conformance tests Deploy API gateway configuration with GitOps
About the reader
Experience building RESTful APIs required.
About the author
Ikenna Nwaiwu is Principal Consultant at Ikenna Consulting, specializing in automating API governance.
The technical editor on this book was Marjukka Niinioja.
Table of Contents
1 What is APIOps?
2 Leaning into Problem-solving and leading improvements
3 API Automating API consistency
4 Breaking change Managing API evolution
5 API design Checking for what you cannot automate
6 API Generating code and API definitions
7 API Schema testing
8 CI/CD for API artifacts 1: Source-stage governance controls
9 CI/CD for API artifacts 2: Build-stage and API configuration deployment
10 More on API Custom linting and security checks
11 Monitori
Automating API Delivery shows you how to strike the perfect balance between speed and usability by applying DevOps automation principles to your API design and delivery process. It lays out a clear path to making both the organizational and technical changes you need to deliver high-quality APIs both rapidly and reliably.
In Automating API Delivery you’ll learn how
Enforce API design standards with linting Automate breaking-change checks to control design creep Ensure accuracy of API reference documents Centralize API definition consistency checks Automate API configuration deployment Conduct effective API design reviews
Author Ikenna Nwaiwu provides comprehensive guidance on implementing APIOps in your organization. He carefully walks through the technical steps and introduces the essential open-source tools, with practical advice and insights from his years of experience. You’ll benefit from his personal tips for avoiding common pitfalls and challenges of moving to automated API delivery.
Foreword by Melissa van der Hecht.
About the technology
Create high quality, consistent, and fast-to-market APIs by automating the development process! This innovative book shows you how to apply established Continuous Delivery and DevOps principles along the whole API lifecycle, transforming a collection of individual tasks into a smooth, manageable pipeline that supports automated testing, iterative improvement, and reliable documentation.
About the book
Automating API Delivery introduces the tools and strategies behind APIOps. You’ll discover tools and process improvements that give you important quick wins, including API governance using the Spectral API linter and establishing an efficient CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions. You’ll even discover how to use the powerful OpenAPI Generator to automatically create client and server code from your API definitions.
What's inside
Check for breaking changes with oasdiff Create SDKs using OpenAPI Generator Maintain accurate documentation with API conformance tests Deploy API gateway configuration with GitOps
About the reader
Experience building RESTful APIs required.
About the author
Ikenna Nwaiwu is Principal Consultant at Ikenna Consulting, specializing in automating API governance.
The technical editor on this book was Marjukka Niinioja.
Table of Contents
1 What is APIOps?
2 Leaning into Problem-solving and leading improvements
3 API Automating API consistency
4 Breaking change Managing API evolution
5 API design Checking for what you cannot automate
6 API Generating code and API definitions
7 API Schema testing
8 CI/CD for API artifacts 1: Source-stage governance controls
9 CI/CD for API artifacts 2: Build-stage and API configuration deployment
10 More on API Custom linting and security checks
11 Monitori
400 pages, Paperback
Published July 30, 2024
1 person is currently reading
81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2025
Very good, very practical, very needed.
And just to be clear - this is NOT a book about designing any API: HTTP, RESTful, GraphQL or any other. This is a book about everything AROUND the API itself: the design process, quality controls, API lifecycle, etc. It covers not just the "soft", more theoretical aspects, but also how to implement those in practice - even at scale. And that means: mechanisms, automations, checks.
The book is very practical, tech stack agnostic and doesn't stick to much to any particular tech solution (so there's no "product placement" of any "API-building" SaaS). It works as a nice checklist, if you're just about to: create an API from scratch or upgrade your API game. And (what's a big plus) it doesn't bugger you with meaningless, space-consuming details (like Open API spec).
Any cons then? Hmm, there's one (potential) one. Each section comes with its own recommendation when it comes to tooling (e.g., what you could use for linting, schema checking, etc.) - these sections are brief, but IMHO very helpful. However, I'm a bit afraid that this part may age very quickly, so if you read it 2027+, you may validate if it's still good enough.
Recommended. The only good book on so-called "APIOps" (I like the name btw, it's about a very real problem) I've seen (& read).
And just to be clear - this is NOT a book about designing any API: HTTP, RESTful, GraphQL or any other. This is a book about everything AROUND the API itself: the design process, quality controls, API lifecycle, etc. It covers not just the "soft", more theoretical aspects, but also how to implement those in practice - even at scale. And that means: mechanisms, automations, checks.
The book is very practical, tech stack agnostic and doesn't stick to much to any particular tech solution (so there's no "product placement" of any "API-building" SaaS). It works as a nice checklist, if you're just about to: create an API from scratch or upgrade your API game. And (what's a big plus) it doesn't bugger you with meaningless, space-consuming details (like Open API spec).
Any cons then? Hmm, there's one (potential) one. Each section comes with its own recommendation when it comes to tooling (e.g., what you could use for linting, schema checking, etc.) - these sections are brief, but IMHO very helpful. However, I'm a bit afraid that this part may age very quickly, so if you read it 2027+, you may validate if it's still good enough.
Recommended. The only good book on so-called "APIOps" (I like the name btw, it's about a very real problem) I've seen (& read).
August 25, 2024
If you want to implement APIOps in your organization, you should read this book.
This book teaches you how to ensure your API designs comply with standard guidelines and how to deploy APIs effectively and reliably. In simple terms, APIOps is a combination of DevOps and GitOps for APIs. It helps you automate API standards compliance, run API conformance checks to validate that the implementation matches the design, and continuously reconcile the desired state of the API gateway configuration with the actual state.
Why do we need APIOps? Because you can automate these processes instead of manually doing the tasks, which can lead to an increase in lead time.
The book covers a wide range of topics, including:
- Using A3 problem-solving sheets to assess your company’s current situation and convince your manager of the need for APIOps.
- Discussions on API linting tools like Spectral for automatically checking for breaking changes.
- Generating code that complies with OpenAPI definitions.
- Incorporating APIOps practices into your CI/CD pipeline.
I personally learned a lot from reading this book and I highly recommend it. The book is well-written, and it is clear that the author has years of experience dealing with the challenges of API delivery in organizations.
Keep in mind that the examples in the book are based on REST APIs and use OpenAPI as a specification. However, the principles can be applied to other types of APIs, such as gRPC.
September 5, 2024
Most people who think about APIs will consider the implementation of APIs, or the API specifications themselves. But there is so much more to an API, particularly good quality ones than that.
Ikenna's book tackles the processes that help drive quality, consistency, and clarity around good API design such as how we can ensure that the APIs are consistent, that the definitions are secure. Not to mention the API 1st processes such collaborative reviewing and refinement with stakeholders.
While many of these tasks fall under the dreaded banner of 'governance' the book doesn't reflect the dour and undesirable aspect that governance often has associated with it.
But by applying the techniques described here, Ikenna shows us how we can take our quality API and gain the maximum benefit from code generation tooling.
Making a case for the controls and tooling that support the development of good APIs can be tough. To achieve this we ideally need to collect some hard facts in the form of metrics. So, the book closes by exploring what metrics to consider and how they help.
Ikenna's book tackles the processes that help drive quality, consistency, and clarity around good API design such as how we can ensure that the APIs are consistent, that the definitions are secure. Not to mention the API 1st processes such collaborative reviewing and refinement with stakeholders.
While many of these tasks fall under the dreaded banner of 'governance' the book doesn't reflect the dour and undesirable aspect that governance often has associated with it.
But by applying the techniques described here, Ikenna shows us how we can take our quality API and gain the maximum benefit from code generation tooling.
Making a case for the controls and tooling that support the development of good APIs can be tough. To achieve this we ideally need to collect some hard facts in the form of metrics. So, the book closes by exploring what metrics to consider and how they help.
September 3, 2024
Full disclosure: I had early access to review parts of this book before publication.
Working with APIs in a multi-team environment can be a real headache on top of the usual development lifecycle challenges.
One of this book's strengths is its dual focus. While it dives into current tools and automation techniques, it also creates a solid foundation for the APIops process. This approach means you can apply the principles to whatever new tools pop up in the future.
The content covers various maturity levels of API governance, making it relevant whether you're just starting out or looking to level up your existing practices. Ikenna uses examples that are practical and very close to challenges you will find in real life.
Bottom line: I highly recommend this book, no matter where you are in your API governance journey. It's a valuable resource for developers, architects, and team leads alike.
Working with APIs in a multi-team environment can be a real headache on top of the usual development lifecycle challenges.
One of this book's strengths is its dual focus. While it dives into current tools and automation techniques, it also creates a solid foundation for the APIops process. This approach means you can apply the principles to whatever new tools pop up in the future.
The content covers various maturity levels of API governance, making it relevant whether you're just starting out or looking to level up your existing practices. Ikenna uses examples that are practical and very close to challenges you will find in real life.
Bottom line: I highly recommend this book, no matter where you are in your API governance journey. It's a valuable resource for developers, architects, and team leads alike.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews