WHITEPAPER

Accelerating innovation
through a new API
operating model

1
Contents

Digital forces are widening the IT delivery gap....................................................................................3

Traditional approaches need to evolve................................................................................................................4

Introducing the Center for Enablement (C4E)........................................................................................6

What does a C4E do?....................................................................................................................................................................................8

C4E structures in practice.............................................................................................................................................................10

Project delivery within a C4E Model.......................................................................................................................12

Skills required within a C4E.......................................................................................................................................................14

Keys to C4E success....................................................................................................................................................................................15

Conclusion......................................................................................................................................................................................................................16

About MuleSoft....................................................................................................................................................................................................17
Digital forces are widening
the IT delivery gap

It is hard for IT to keep the business happy and it’s only getting
harder.
In our recent Connectivity Benchmark Report, we found that
organizations have an average of over 1,000 applications to
connect. And, on average, IT leaders reported a 27% increase
in the number of projects the business is requesting.
Demands on IT have always been growing. Due to a myriad
of digital forces — from cloud and mobile to IoT and big data
— the gap between what IT can deliver and what the business
needs is increasing.
In fact, according to research from the Standish Group, only
10% of IT projects — API and core integration projects among
them — are delivered on time, on budget, and meet technical
objectives. The common reasons for failure are a lack of align-
ment around business outcomes and organizational enable-
ment, as well as the long time it takes to realize value.
There is no silver bullet to solving this
challenge. Organizations are turning to
SaaS, IaaS, automation, agile, DevOps,
outsourcing, and other methods. In
this paper, we will focus on how
organizations can address this
challenge through a better op-
erating model—an API operat-
ing model known as a Center
for Enablement (C4E).

› Download the Connectivity

Benchmark Report 2018

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Traditional approaches need to evolve

Many organizations utilize a traditional Center of Excellence

(CoE) approach for enterprise platforms.
Typically, this approach is characterized by consumers, where
someone with a requirement asks the CoE to implement that
requirement.
Simply, a CoE’s responsibilities include running an API platform,
developing APIs on that platform, and managing the operation
of those APIs.

Consumer

Center of Excellence

Platform Development Operate

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This model may have historically worked well; but, in today’s
digitally disruptive environment, the CoE model presents a
number of challenges, these include:
› Creates a delivery bottleneck for consumers and is
subject to scalability challenges.
› Leads to inefficiency due to the time it takes to gather
requirements. There is also no focus on reusing code
and development across projects—making each project
as time-consuming and difficult as the next.
› Prevents consumers from experimenting, because
they do not have access to underlying business data
and processes through APIs. As a result, they cannot
embrace a fail fast model.

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Introducing the Center for Enablement

Digital leaders have transitioned their CoE into a Center for En-
ablement (C4E).
The C4E is focused on two primary goals: running the API plat-
form and enabling teams on how to best use the platform and
develop reusable APIs to deliver change more efficiently and
accelerate innovation.

Check out our whitepaper on API-led Connectivity for more

information on the value of reusing APIs.

Consumer

Delivery

Development Operate

Center for Enablement

Platform Enablement

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The delivery of APIs is not the primary focus of the C4E; rather,
a C4E is a model to decouple and federate out delivery to be
closer to the consumers. In other words, the emphasis is on
enabling other teams to deliver those APIs and other assets.
The benefits of a C4E approach include:
› Consumers are able to operate in a self-service way
because there is no delivery bottleneck, and they are not
subject to group-wide prioritization.
› The C4E provides enablement that promotes better
designed APIs, which can be reused and recomposed to
accelerate projects.
› The C4E offers a more scalable solution. This is because
teams can readily onboard additional resources to
deliver on the processes and assets managed by the
C4E.

C4E Mission
To enable delivery teams to
design and build productized
APIs in a decentralized way and
promote reuse through an API
ecosystem—improving efficiency
and accelerating innovation.

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What does a C4E do?

Platform Enablement

Reference API
Architecture Strategy

Deployment API Best

and C4E Practices
Mangement

Delivery
Support
Acceleration

The typical responsibilities of a C4E are described below.

On the platform side, responsibilities include:
› Managing the platform architecture, covering
deployment models, reference, and security architecture
as well as automation tooling.
› Deploying, evolving, and managing the platform
according to consumer requirements.
› Providing platform-level support and managing product
enhancements.

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On the enablement side, responsibilities include:
› Ensuring there is a clear and actionable API vision,
strategy, and reporting, as well as data-driven API KPIs
value reporting.
› Producing API best practices, covering API design and
development guides, training and certification programs,
and API evangelism.
› Accelerating and supporting consumer delivery by
building reusable assets (e.g. connectors and core
system APIs), creating onboarding processes, and
consulting to consumers and delivery teams.

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C4E structures in practice

There is no one-size-fits-all model for how to structure the C4E,

the exact responsibilities and structure will all change depend-
ing on the organization and the deployment model required.
The C4E should always manage a centralized platform and
should avoid creating multiple platforms, unless absolutely re-
quired. In large organizations, we often see a proliferation of
legacy platforms, not only is this expensive, but it also dilutes
the potential to drive API interoperability and reuse.
For organizations with a central API strategy and a consolidated
organization structure, a centralized model works best. In this
model, the C4E is responsible for all enablement and also pro-
vides advice to consumers of the platform.

CONSUMER-LED
Consumers

C4E

Enablement Platform

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Alternatively, a more federated model, with a focus on enable-
ment from Line of Business (LoB) teams, is best suited for or-
ganizations with a more localized API strategy or organizations
with multiple IT teams.

FEDERATED
Consumers

Local
Enablement

C4E

Enablement Platform

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Project delivery within a C4E Model

In our experience, we see the delivery model evolving as the

C4E matures. The maturity level of an organization’s C4E also
depends on the extent to which DevOps has been implement-
ed within the organization.
Often, when organizations are first moving to a C4E model,
consumers usually continue to utilize a centralized delivery ca-
pability for the development and operational management of
APIs. These activities may be driven by the same C4E team or a
separate team working alongside the C4E.

CENTRALIZED
CENTRALIZED
Consumers
Consumers

Delivery
Delivery

C4E

As the C4E principles become embedded within an organiza-

tion, more federated delivery capability is created. This is es-
pecially true for teams or LoBs who can see a critical mass of
requirements to warrant such an investment. Perhaps, for ex-
ample, a digital team will build out their own API delivery capa-
bility for their digital channels.

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 FEDERATED
FEDERATED
Consumers
Consumers

Delivery
Delivery

C4E

In the most mature organizations, where DevOps has been

heavily embedded, a move to small self-contained digital prod-
uct teams, or DevOps pods, is best. These pods contain all the
business and IT capabilities required to develop and evolve the
product and include an API delivery capability as part the cross
functional team such as, for example, a mobile app team.

CONSUMER LED
CONSUMER LED
Consumers
Consumers
Delivery
Delivery

C4E

Irrespective of the delivery model that an organization chooses,

the key is that the C4E enables the delivery of these projects
such that every API or asset created conforms with established
best practices and facilitates reusability.
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Skills required within a C4E

Just like the responsibilities and shape of the C4E will vary, the
actual size and number of individuals in the C4E will also vary.
It is more helpful to think about the skills required and then
rightsize the number of individuals to fulfill those roles.
The skills include:
› Leadership skills to sponsor and ensure the change is
well governed and coordinated like any other project.
› API architecture, training, and evangelism skills to
support the enablement of the organization.
› Platform engineering and skills to build, run, and scale
the platform.
› API delivery skills, including solution design and API
development.
For smaller organizations, we often see one or two individuals
focused on C4E activities, and sometimes that is alongside their
previous role.
For our largest customers, there could be between 10 to 50
people focused on C4E activities. It is very context dependent
and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
In this case, intent really matters. If there is group of people or
even just one person focused on the principles of a C4E, then
there is a C4E irrespective of its name or size.

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Keys to C4E success

To support our customers in this journey, we have taken learn-

ings from customers and baked them into a model necessary
for C4E success: the Outcome Based Delivery model (OBD).
OBD provides a step-by-step best practice guide to follow
across business outcomes, technology delivery, and organiza-
tion enablement in order to ensure a successful C4E.
The primary keys to C4E success include:
› A clear API vision and mandate that guide requirements
and inform the design of the C4E.
› A documented and shared view of success and a
supporting delivery plan that is being implemented.
› Initial consumer projects are identified and used
to incubate the C4E, so that the C4E is built out to
immediately support real projects.
Visible executive sponsorship and governance
to ensure the organization doesn’t default back to
traditional ways of working.

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Conclusion

While we have a tested approach — a C4E — for delivering

change, each organization is different and has its nuances. The
toughest part of change is consistent measurement, especial-
ly measuring and reporting consumption and continuously
tweaking the model to deliver incremental change.
Various organizations — from Unilever to Coca Cola — have
used MuleSoft to establish Centers for Enablement. One of our
customers summarizes this well: “The only way we could really
really make a step change [in integration] was by decentralizing
the ownership of some of the components and decentralizing
innovation... this is a journey and we will need to adjust. There
is no end stage.”
Contact us for more information on how this type of capability
would work in your organization to enable greater agility and
productivity.

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About MuleSoft

MuleSoft’s mission is to help organizations change and inno-

vate faster by making it easy to connect the world’s applica-
tions, data and devices. With its API-led approach to connectiv-
ity, MuleSoft’s market-leading Anypoint Platform™ is enabling
over 1,000 organizations in more than 60 countries to build
application networks. For more information, visit mulesoft.com.
MuleSoft is a registered trademark of MuleSoft, Inc. All other marks are those of respective owners.

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