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Integration + API governance at scale

Technology + delivery org • Financial Services • 5 weeks

Reduced integration friction by standardizing patterns, ownership, and review gates.

Snapshot

Services

  • Enterprise Architecture

Deliverables

  • Integration pattern library (approved patterns + anti-patterns)
  • API standards pack (versioning, naming, error models)
  • Governance workflow (intake/review/publish) with RACI
  • Contract templates + checklist
  • Reference architecture for shared integration components

Context

  • Engagement: 5-week integration governance build
  • Timeline: 5 weeks
  • Client: Technology + delivery org
  • Industry: Financial Services
  • Multi-team environment with frequent integrations and release dependencies
  • Variation in API style created brittle coupling and slow delivery
  • Needed governance that teams would actually adopt, not a gatekeeper model

Constraints

  • Standards had to be concrete (templates + checklists), not a long policy
  • Review gates needed to fit the weekly shipping rhythm
  • Patterns had to reduce risk without blocking legitimate exceptions

Challenge

Teams were building inconsistent APIs and point-to-point integrations, causing long lead times and brittle dependencies during releases.

How we worked

  • Reduced the pattern set to a small, approved library with clear anti-patterns
  • Standardized contracts (naming, versioning, errors) to prevent surprises
  • Designed a minimal intake → review → publish workflow with explicit ownership
  • Enabled contract-first delivery with templates teams could copy-paste

What we did

  • Created a small set of approved integration patterns and anti-patterns
  • Defined API standards (naming, versioning, contracts, error models)
  • Implemented a minimal governance workflow (intake → review → publish)
  • Introduced a contract-first approach and shared templates

Outcomes

  • Time to integrate a new system: ↓ from ~6 weeks to ~2–3 weeks
  • Breaking changes: ↓ ~30% within 90 days
  • API reuse: ↑ ~25% (reduced duplication)

Proof

  • Integration pattern library (high-level) with decision criteria
  • API standards checklist (versioning, contracts, error models)
  • Governance workflow overview (intake/review/publish) with RACI
  • Contract template starter set (redaction-safe)

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