Contract First Design

A guideline advocating for API-first approaches using formal contracts (e.g., OpenAPI) to align stakeholders before development.

Outcomes

• Better understanding of contract first design principles

How it works

Steps

1. Apply contract-first or design-first approaches to ensure API contracts are validated before implementation.
2. Define API contracts that outline the expectations, responsibilities, and usage guidelines for each API.
3. Use standardized formats (e.g., OpenAPI, AsyncAPI) to create machine-readable API contracts that are easy to share and validate.

Tip

• Customize the Contract First Design for your domain
• Use it collaboratively across business and tech roles