Tips for successful API migration
Evolution is a part of a product life cycle. As products evolve, users need to be informed, trained and driven towards adoption. For API as a product, a developer is a conduit connecting the product and the end-users.
As API’s evolve, developers have to be driven towards migrating to a newer version of API. Migration can be tricky as this involves refactoring code, ensure backward compatibility. Being part of multiple API first product launches, I have had my share of battle scars. In this post, I try to share tips for successful API migration.
Identify the impact
Before you begin talking about the migration internally make sure you have done your homework. Ensure you understand the impact. Any change you propose either
- Has to benefit the internal cross-functional team you wanted to align with or
- Should call out the risks that this change is preventing.
No organization will implement a change unless they see a value this effort will bring or address a concern that is seen as a risk to the organization.
Ensure backward compatibility until the completion of the migration.
This is to ensure that the migration will not break existing apps/code. It may be an extra cost to support the legacy and new versions but it is simply a matter of time until we migrate apps off of legacy. The hardest part of the migration is the in-between phase where some users are using an old version of API and some are using the new version. We should ensure a consistent experience for both types of users.
Define the migration plan for all three states of evolution: Current, migrating and end-state.
It is important all the internal teams and users understand what they are using, what is changing and what are we planning to achieve at the end of the migration. Hence, well-defined steps, states, actions, and timelines will smooth transitions as the user transforms through various migration states.
Coordinate and manage the evolution across various functional and internal teams within the organization.
Migrations are usually complex projects mainly because an organization has to ensure existing state of users does not get affected and users get upgraded to the new version without breaking their experience. It requires thorough planning, coordination within internal/external teams to have clear action items, internal owners who are the experts and the timelines in various stages of migrations
Define the mapping of legacy and new changes to simplify the switch
This serves as a change map similar to a code diff view to understand what is changing as part of the migration.
Cross-functional training required for Customer success, support, and other operational staff.
It is important that your user-facing teams are trained to troubleshoot migration issues and understand how to support them with quality, accurate support in a timely manner.
Plan and implement a risk mitigation, rollback, and incidental plan from a technical, operational point of you.
This is to ensure we understand the risks, mitigation plan, rollback plan and/or a playbook to handle unplanned events.
Plan and implement an effective test strategy and perform a pilot for each phase of migration.
It is always recommended to have a few early adopters who can give you feedback around the migration. The feedback can be taken as learning to improve the migration plan before you roll this out to a broader audience.
Plan and set up tools to monitor progress
Setting up a report, monitoring tools to understand the progress of the migration. You may also consider setting up alerts to proactively support the migrating users. This can help you prevent a large outage and/or identify risks during the migration.
Thorough migration guide for migrating users.
This guide should resonate with the audiences and should cover the following-
- Run through few Wh’s- What is this migration for?, Who is affected? How to migrate? When? And most importantly why anyone should care?
- Migration Checklist
- Verification steps to ensure a successful migration
- Legacy to new mapping
- Support information