Systems & Software
Building interfaces other systems depend on, with a versioned contract, documented behaviour under failure, and authentication designed before the first endpoint rather than after.
Stated as we hear it, before any mention of what we would do about it.
Qualitative, because we do not publish numbers we cannot evidence.
How it works
Systems connected by people versus by integration
Before: three systems, each bridged by a person moving data across by hand. After: the same three connected directly through an integration layer, with one declared source of truth per record.
Scope
Six to sixteen weeks depending on surface area and existing system access.
The boundary
Naming the boundary early removes the most common source of disappointment in an engagement.
REST for most business integrations: it is simpler to consume, cache and debug, and the consumers usually want a handful of stable endpoints. GraphQL earns its complexity where clients genuinely need to shape varied queries themselves.
Version it, add rather than alter where possible, and state a deprecation window before removing anything. The cost of that discipline is small; the cost of breaking a partner integration without warning is not.
Building interfaces other systems depend on, with a versioned contract, documented behaviour under failure, and authentication designed before the first endpoint rather than after.
Businesses whose partners need programmatic access; Product teams exposing capability to customers or resellers; and Organisations replacing manual data exchange with a real interface
Contract design agreed before implementation, so consumers can start early; Authentication, authorisation and rate limiting appropriate to the audience; Versioning strategy with a deprecation policy that is actually stated; Error responses that are specific enough to act on; Documentation generated from the implementation, so it cannot drift; and Monitoring on availability, latency and error rate
Partners or internal teams need access to data currently exported by hand; An existing API changes without warning and breaks its consumers; and Every integration is built bespoke because there is nothing stable to build against
A documented contract consumers can build against with confidence; Versioning that allows change without breaking what already works; and Behaviour under failure that is specified rather than discovered
Six to sixteen weeks depending on surface area and existing system access.
Connected
Describe where the work currently is and what it has to achieve commercially. We will tell you what we would scope, what we would leave alone, and whether this is the right service to be buying first.
