Managing the design-first process in the real world
In Chapter 8, Shift-Left for API Security, we examined the concepts associated with design-first API development, namely that the API development team starts with the API design first (via an OpenAPI definition) and then proceeds to implement the API code. There are numerous benefits to adopting this approach, including the following:
- Incorporating security early: Incorporating security early in the design lifecycle ensures that designers and developers are forced to consider how they will secure their APIs (for example, an OAS definition can be parsed to check if a security method has been specified and generate a warning if not). This makes it harder to leave security considerations for a later stage in the lifecycle.
- Automated document generation: A well-formed OAS definition can be used to generate comprehensive API documentation for an API developer portal, making it easier for consumers to integrate with the API...