The Early Days: A really small IT Team 🧑💻
The long journey we're going to present began in the 70's with a small team of three people that were representing the whole IT department of Vaudoise Assurances. Since that period, IT continue to grow and grow and build a huge complex transactional system based on cobol still used today.
Discovering the Chaos of APIs in 2015 🌪️
In 2015, a group of fresh developers joined the Vaudoise Assurances and started exploring APIs unfortunately only to find a chaotic landscape. As the IT Department grew to more than 200 people, we faced the challenge of managing the legacy world while embracing new technologies. Long story short, each team was creating their own APIs for their own needs, leading to duplication and inconsistency. Data was copied multiple times (the worst case identified was 14 times 😱), and there was no standardization in naming (mix of french and english) and documentation. Result: It was a nightmare for developers and consumers alike.
Building the Community of Practice (CoP) 🤝
Determined to bring order to this chaos, we started creating a basic set of API guidelines within their own unit. This was a small but significant step towards consistency. However, the real breakthrough came when the company's top management decided to undergo an agile transformation, adopting the SAFe framework ( which was later abandoned, but we kept the core concept). This framework emphasized the importance of Communities of Practice (CoP), and we saw an opportunity to formalize our efforts. We created a dedicated wiki space, organizing meetings, and setting up communication channels. Our CoP was inclusive, allowing anyone in the company to join and contribute. We categorized members into different groups based on their level of involvement, from transactional to core team members. In the very first days of the CoP, we had tons of meetings about organisational and technical stuff like paging, caching, logging and many other topics. We were continuing to establish our standards API.
Continuous Improvement and Adaptation 🔄
In 2019, we've also been able to define a strong new process of API review before implementation that force people to share their Open Api definition before coding any line of code. Since that time, we've conducted more than 400 API design reviews before implementation, ensuring quality and consistency. 🚀
Building the CoP has been an ongoing daily effort, requiring continuous communication, training, and adaptation. But we were committed to this cause because we strongly believe in the power of community and the value it brings to our company. To achieve this, we started by engaging with IT management. We asked for freedom for technical leaders, legitimacy for our CoP, and ongoing support. This allowed us to create a recognized and respected group within the company. We also reached out to product owners, explaining the long-term benefits of standardized APIs and gaining their trust and support. For developers, we communicated the existence and importance of the CoP through various channels, including town hall meetings and blog posts. We organized training sessions, both optional and mandatory, to ensure everyone was on the same page. 🎁📆 Fun events, like an advent calendar with daily API questions and prizes, helped to keep the community engaged and motivated.
At the beginning of 2025, we have more than 25 members in our CoP, with our guidelines publicly available on our GitHub account and almost 70 internal APIs adhering to these standards. Since 2019, we acknowledge that the CoP has become less active over time, as the standards are now well established, with only minor updates being published.
The key to our success has been constant communication and a bottom-up approach. Natural leaders emerged within the CoP, driving the initiative forward with passion and dedication. We also received crucial support from management, which helped to legitimize our efforts and ensure compliance with the guidelines.
Our strategy was to provide clean, consumer-friendly APIs, even if the backend remained messy. Over time, we aimed to improve the backend as well, but our priority was to ensure a positive experience for API consumers. This approach allowed us to gradually build a solid foundation of standardized APIs while managing the legacy systems.
As we continue this journey, we remain focused on our goals. We know that building a CoP is an ongoing process that requires perseverance and adaptability. But we are confident that our efforts will lead to a more efficient and cohesive IT environment, benefiting the entire company.
So, if you're facing similar challenges, remember that transformation is possible. It takes time, effort, and a lot of communication ⏳💡📣, but the results are worth it. Join us in building a better future, one API at a time. 🥇
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