10 Signs Your API Is "Almost Ready" (It Is Not)
Everything is fine. Nothing is on fire.
It is "basically done". The docs are "in progress". The staging URL is "being fixed". A field guide, with a survival plan at the end.
Skim this if you are in the meeting
- If three or more of these ring a bell, plan as if the API is not coming this sprint.
- The fix is not shouting. It is decoupling: mock the contract and keep moving.
The field guide
- "It is basically done." (The word "basically" is doing heavy lifting.)
- The Swagger page loads. Nothing on it works.
- The staging URL changes every standup.
- The example response has a field called
datacontaining a field calleddata. - Auth is "the next ticket".
- The error format is decided when the first error happens.
- "Just use the production one, carefully." Please do not.
- Pagination will be added "if we need it". You need it.
- The backend engineer answers every question with "it depends" and then a smile.
- Everyone agrees it will be ready "by Friday". No one says which Friday.
The survival plan (a rule, not a meeting)
The meeting could have been a rule. Agree the response, write it into an interceptor rule, and let the UI proceed. When the real API arrives, turn the rule off and compare.
Bonus: add a delay and a forced 500 to the same rule. You will need those states anyway, and this is the first time you can see them on demand.
A footnote that is funnier than the body
Nobody has ever regretted writing down the response shape early. Several people have regretted "we will figure it out in integration". Integration is the most expensive place to figure things out.
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