Frank Kilcommins, API Technical Evangelist at SmartBear, a leading provider of software development and visibility tools, is presenting, “Good APIs Are Human-Centered,” at Agile2023 Scotland on Monday, July 24, 2023. The event is taking place in conjunction with Agile2023, Agile Alliance’s annual conference in Orlando, Florida where agilists from around the world gather to learn about the latest practices, ideas, and strategies in agile. 

WHAT: Frank Kilcommins is presenting, “Good APIs Are Human-Centered,” at Agile2023 Scotland 

WHEN: Monday, July 24, 2023, 11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. BST

WHERE: The University of Edinburgh at the JMCC, 18 Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh 

For APIs to be good, they need to be useful, usable, and findable. Longevity can make them successful. To ensure API longevity and adoption, it's essential to keep focus at the intersection of design, governance, and empathy for the human actors involved. Although demographic caring about APIs is increasing, it's still developers that are the primary users. 

Frank Kilcommins explores Behavioral Driven Development (BDD) as the missing link in human-centered API delivery, and how the concept of “living documentation” combined with API specifications can enable the agile delivery of good APIs. Humans effectively learn through examples, and leveraging BDD to support the creation of example-rich API definitions takes living documentation to a new level. API specifications do more than just document what an API looks like. A consumer can understand and interact with the remote service with minimal implementation logic. The same is true on the provider side of an API, as stakeholders can communicate more effectively on the value proposition offered by any service. 

Frank has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry, his roles spanning from software engineering to enterprise architecture. His mission is to inspire, engage with, and support the API community as well as SmartBear customers across the end-to-end API development lifecycle and management space. Frank is an advocate for API specifications and spends time working with the OpenAPI initiative and in the community to promote adoption. Prior to joining SmartBear, Frank’s most recent roles have been focused on API-led digital transformations and architecture modernization within multi-national enterprises. 

For more information on Agile2023 Scotland, go to: https://events.agilealliance.org/aascotland2023/3306767