What are the strong technical indicators of a good API candidate?

[apaterson]

A customer asked me this question recently. Of course in an business environment mature enough to demand an API-first approach to digital business the answer is fairly self-evident. However in a less digitally-mature organization it is a question with technical and business implications that need to be articulated in response to "What characteristics help identify a good API candidate?"

[alan]

I think best indicators is:

- The a company hired someone who's only job it to repetitively perform a certain action that can be automated with an API

I'll give you an example, when I was at Amazon, Sellers knew that the more products being sold increased their total sales because it is essentially giving choice to the end consumer. So some sellers would hire a full time person who's only job was to repeatedly upload bulk spreadsheets or make bulk changes on the UI to upload more products. Somebody in the business has ran the numbers that it made sense to pay someone to do the work, so it became a brain dead decision for Amazon to invest in an API.