API management challenges in ecosystems

Abstract

The API has become a cornerstone of software ecosystems, providing ways to drive innovation inside and outside the organization. Because of this criticality, we should manage APIs. The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the challenges that organizations evolving into internal ecosystems are facing as they have to deal with APIs. We performed a qualitative research study on three Siemens internal ecosystems with different sizes, technologies, and age. The results reveal that even if we are talking about the API economy, organizations are struggling with different aspects of API management related to Business, Architecture, Process, and Organization. The challenges identified in this paper provide a basis for future research.