API integration brief builder
Describe systems, records, direction, identity and recovery. Download a practical brief for your integration project.
An integration becomes a bounded assignment when the data movement and responsibility for its meaning are clear. This brief collects the information a developer needs to investigate feasibility. Unknown answers remain visible as open questions.
Describe one data flow, such as an approved customer record travelling from your CRM into accounting. A return message containing an invoice status is a separate flow with its own rules. This prevents “connect the systems” from silently including historical cleanup, a new customer model and migration.
Prepare your plan
Your answers stay in this page. Download the draft to keep it; closing or resetting the page clears your input.
Turn system names into a testable data flow
Record the product and environment, together with any access that still needs to be requested. A vendor may offer an API while the necessary field or operation is unavailable. Relevant endpoints, licensing conditions, limits and a usable test environment matter more to scoping than a general statement that an API exists.
Use field names and descriptions rather than customer data. A customer number may be an internal key, a user-editable value or a number unique only within one administration. Record which meaning applies. You do not need real customer files or access keys to prepare this discussion.
Discuss a completed example
Illustrative example: a consultancy wants approved business contacts to move from its CRM into accounting. The CRM owns contact details and accounting owns invoice status. The consultancy chooses a stable CRM identifier as the external reference. Expected volume is an internal estimate to validate during the pilot.
The first scope covers only new and changed contacts after an agreed start date. Historical duplicates and merging administrations sit outside that first step. The team separately decides how to handle a customer that already exists in accounting. These boundaries make a quotation discussion more precise than two product names.
Use the download to agree responsibilities
The draft includes your answers, missing topics and next steps. Ask a responsible person for each system to review direction, identity and recovery. Add a delivery plan and quotation after investigation. This tool does not estimate price because technical access and exceptions still need examination.
For recovery, specify who receives alerts and how a failed operation can be located. Agree how to check whether an operation completed despite a timeout. The tool changes nothing in your systems; its output prepares design and discussion.
Understand the decisions behind your plan
APIs & integrations ↗What does an API integration cost? Define the job before the price
Understand integration costs through data flows, business rules, recovery, testing, operating costs and comparable proposals.
Read the guide ↗02 / APIs & integrationsStandard connector or custom integration: test the whole process
Compare connectors, integration platforms and custom development through business rules, exceptions, recovery, operating costs and handover.
Read the guide ↗03 / APIs & integrationsConnect CRM and accounting: agree customers, orders and invoice boundaries
Design a CRM-accounting integration with stable identity, field ownership, clear invoice actions and controlled introduction.
Read the guide ↗04 / APIs & integrationsSynchronise data without uncontrolled overwriting
Assign field ownership, recognise competing changes and design explicit rules for versions, empty values, archiving and recovery.
Read the guide ↗05 / APIs & integrationsPrevent duplicate orders and invoices when API messages repeat
Design processing that recognises repeated operations, investigates uncertain outcomes and preserves source-to-destination identity.
Read the guide ↗06 / APIs & integrationsWebhooks or polling: choose for timeliness and recovery
Compare event notifications, periodic reads and combined integration designs, including missed changes, authenticity and business backlogs.
Read the guide ↗07 / APIs & integrationsAn API integration has stopped: investigate and recover without duplicate work
Control an integration incident through business impact, preserved evidence, targeted diagnosis and a verified backlog recovery process.
Read the guide ↗08 / APIs & integrationsAPI integration maintenance and handover: what must be in place?
Make an integration transferable with account ownership, data contracts, meaningful monitoring, recovery procedures and rehearsed handover.
Read the guide ↗