An API Story Chapter 2

The Darkest Hour is Just Before the Dawn

Authors: Roland Brunner, Simon Alioth

As he left the podium after the town hall meeting, Finn was feeling pretty good about himself. He reckoned his progress report on the API platform project he’d been managing for the last three months had gone well. The infrastructure for the on-premise cloud is on track and the engineers are getting excited about the new technology. With the fast progress in the proof of concept project, even business people started to pay attention to what’s happening in IT. During the presentation people had looked interested, and there had even been brief applause from some of the Banque Leboeuf staff gathered to hear the latest news from the management.

First to arrive at the drinks table, Finn grabbed a glass, made his way to one of the stand-up tables, and took a generous sip of white wine. After all the stress of the presentation, he could finally relax.

His reverie was shattered when someone slammed their fist on the table right in front of him. Finn looked up, startled. His colleague Paul Gagnaire, the guy leading the team of back-end developers, looked furious:

“What kind of bullshit are you telling people?” Paul hissed through clenched teeth. “This project has been a disaster from the get-go. My expertise is being challenged at every turn, and every decision I make gets interfered with. The whole thing’s a house of cards just waiting to fall down. I’m not happy, and my people aren’t happy.”

Finn didn’t know what to say. This was the first he’d heard of it. There had been no hint of dissatisfaction, certainly not from the back-end developers.

Things were about to get worse. Rolf Wagner, the junior relationship manager assigned as the business product owner of the API solution, had overheard Paul’s comments, and was keen to add his two cents’ worth:

“You’re not kidding. You claim the tests are going well, but we’re having no end of trouble. It feels like every other hour one of the components is unavailable and that brings down. And don’t get me started on the time it takes to investigate an issue. The API platform’s just not delivering. It all looks great on paper, but it falls down completely in practice. At this rate, it’s going to make our relationship managers look like fools when they use these tools with their clients. At the moment you guys are just wasting my time.” Rolf took a pull of his beer and looked darkly at Finn, as if expecting an answer.

Again, Finn was lost for words. In a way he could understand where Rolf was coming from. There had been problems, especially earlier on in the API platform project. He’d realised that the new approach was creating a whole series of challenges for IT and operations, especially in terms of testing and security. It had become clear that the old processes didn’t fit the new way of developing software. Ever the optimist, Finn had assumed that these problems would iron themselves out as people got used the new system. But judging by the way Rolf was still glaring at him, that had been wishful thinking.

The volume of their exchange had increased steadily. The three of them were still alone, but people at other tables, including (as Finn noted to his great embarrassment) the general partner and CIO Louise, were casting sideward glances in their direction.

Excusing herself, Louise made her way quickly over.

“Is there a problem here? If so, I think we should find a quiet place to talk about it.” She ushered Finn, Paul and Rolf out of the lobby and into one of the adjoining meeting rooms, closing the door behind them.

Louise realised to her chagrin that she should have seen this coming. She’d been overseeing the API project closely, and so far had been fairly happy about its progress, especially on the technical side. The young woman from Hong Kong they’d managed to hire as a DevOps engineer (but only after placing an ad on a global IT jobs platform) had fit in immediately, and seemed to know exactly what she was doing. The back-end developers appeared to be doing their job and delivering on time.

Not that there hadn’t been hiccups. She’d had a tough time convincing top management that the higher-than-expected initial costs of building a baseline of generic interfaces for the first API-based projects would ultimately pay off. She’d also realised that there was a lack of skills in IT domains to support the new technology stack, which had resulted in resistance to taking ownership. This hadn’t been helped by a certain amount of friction between some of the key players and her project manager, Finn. He was capable and dynamic, but sometimes let his enthusiasm get away with him. This didn’t always go down well with other members of the team, especially some of the more seasoned developers. While it was clear that the architects and developers really would have to abandon old design patterns and adopt new ways of doing things, they had enough on their plates already, and didn’t like to be put under pressure by what they saw as a young and inexperienced project manager. She’d let things roll along, but now it was clear the time had come to intervene.

“Okay guys, what’s the problem? And let’s try to not make it personal.”

Louise listened patiently as the three men let off steam. Their gripes seemed to be a mixture of genuine complaints about concrete shortcomings, and general frustration that everyone was having to work under such heavy pressure – the API project had been launched, after all, in an attempt to reverse the fortunes of the bank – and wasn’t yet seeing the desired results.

With a little gentle steering from Louise, the temperature cooled and the conversation got less confrontational. When the last person had said his piece, the CIO waited a moment.

“I hear you what you’re saying, guys. I think this is something we can resolve, but we need an outsider’s view. Let’s book a room off site next Monday morning, and I’ll see if I can get our consultant along to help us iron this out.”

It was time for another phone call.

To be continued…