I’ve been thinking about the connection between API metrics and the ability to do proper governance. What I’m seeing is two kinds of API Governance experts. The first kind speaks a lot about linting rules, automation tools, and how to control what people can or can’t do. The second kind is more concerned about the people behind the APIs and how governance changes their lives. I wrote about this dichotomy in “API Governance Isn’t Just Rule Automation.” But what about the connection between these two areas? How do you answer the question, “Why do we need API Governance?” What is the end goal?

Without metrics, you will never be able to know if you’re improving things with API Governance. It’s as simple as that. The first thing you should do is measure your APIs. So, what are the meaningful API metrics? That’s a topic for another time.