Products don’t start out as perfectly secure, infinitely scalable, and unbreakably robust. Those are just targets we strive for to varying degrees depending on what the product needs to become in order to achieve its vision.
Let’s start simple with a proposed evolutionary progression of an API assuming the following phases
Proof of Concept
at least one valuable end point deployed such that you can confirm that a product outcome is feasible.
you have done enough work to get approval to get a real user to try using it
The minimum requirements for this phase are
security
scalability
uptime
disaster recovery
agility (low cost of change/devops)
Pilot
with a single use case you invite one user group to use the product for a specified period of time with the possibility of discontinuing it
The minimum requirements for this phase are
security
scalability
uptime
disaster recovery
agility (low cost of change/devops)
Extended Pilot or Closed Alpha
the number of use cases is extended to more than one, but still on an invite only basis and still with the possibility of discontinuing it
The minimum requirements for this phase are
security
scalability
uptime
disaster recovery
agility (low cost of change/devops)
Open Alpha or Beta
With disclaimers the product is determined to be something to offer and a level of committment is made to support, maintain, and continuously improve the product
Use of the product is made available to start using without invitations
The formation of collaboration communities emerge to add to and improve the product for a growing user base
The minimum requirements for this phase are
security
scalability
uptime
disaster recovery
agility (low cost of change/devops)
Live
The minimum requirements for this phase are
security
scalability
uptime
disaster recovery
agility (low cost of change/devops)
Livelier
The minimum requirements for this phase are
security
scalability
uptime
disaster recovery
agility (low cost of change/devops)