Story of API
John Robert
Global PMO Leader | Driving Innovation & Excellence | Top 6 PMO Leader 2023 | Trainer, Author & Speaker
It was a beautiful morning, and I, along with my colleague called upon an enthusiastic IT start-up company partner to our corporate office in order to discuss the possibility of making automated dashboards from various applications. You know, the Pharma domain is unique, and we would love to have someone who has a deep understanding of the domain to work with us. The partner claimed that he had already worked on a couple of assignments in this startup and as a part of a more extensive career from which he had begun this venture.
Moved by this, we went on discussing further. “what do you think the most critical success factor in such a pharma project" I asked. “API” the reply was spontaneous, “It is very complex to develop, and there are multiple moving parts, hence in my experience, there are many instances we are stumbling upon this, and we have to be extremely vigilant about this”. We were stunned to look at the thorough understanding of an IT buddy in a complex domain like pharma. He was bang on!
The discussion went on, we discussed various strategies to control and risk mitigate API. At one point in time, when it became overwhelming, we started realizing that there is something drastically wrong with this conversation. The partner started saying many things which we have not heard before. Further probing proved that the API which he referred to having an entirely different meaning ‘Application Programming Interface.' The API which we all had in our mind is ‘Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient’ is the ingredient of any drug that produces its effects.
Indeed, the partner had profound insights into API, the Application Programming Interface is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building application software. API still remains a significant challenge when integrating multiple bespoke software applications and trying to do something meaningful, such as what we were driving to accomplish, but the API which he spoke about and the API we had in mind are entirely different.?
领英推荐
The moral of the story.
This is an excerpt from my book “Leadership Journey”
Head of Ops PMO, Global Program Management
2 年Yes.. sir.. you are spot on. It is always good to use full forms in our communications..(even though they are boring internally).. makes a lot of sense when we communicate with people outside the organization (more so important for international customers/clients).. If we don't, then we are in a situation to deal with..
Dy General Manager Project Management Office - API
2 年Very True on communication...BTW the phrase API is very complex to develop is true for both IT and Pharma. ??
Industrial Engineering & Project Management | Passionate about Technology, Innovations &... Golf
2 年Hello ! I love your short story. Already shared the same feeling with colleagues, several time since I changed companies. I still remember a manager from my early time saying that what could "kill" a company is using too many acronyms. It's a kind of "creole" language only shared between same company or domain people. Misundersatnding is here the pain point. Some companies have also a glossary of acronyms, and depending on the size and the internal department, hence the same acronym can also be used to describe 2 different things. Happens a lot between finance and marketing and engineering... The good practice is always to ask for "translation" to make sure everyone around the table speaks about the same thing.
Managing Director at Shamisha Resources Managment
2 年Good one
Talent Acquisition Services - Quality with Quantity and with Spirit, QQS. Open for Consulting [email protected], Company as well as Personal/
2 年Hi, yes, u r telling the story from their side? Its not API people --"Pharma" to understand how Technology works, i suppose its like Highway -- you have to take your vehicle to drive may be any type/model, you have also to understand the Signages, Speed Limit, Tolls, etc. Its a Synergy.......though my point of View is tended by the intro you have shared.