Designing APIs using System, Process, and Experience Layers12% of the exam

System API Models and Backend Isolation

Choose a System API representation from the required abstraction and existing contracts. Preserve business semantics and identifier perspectives while using model-driven design to keep the agreed model useful in implementation.

Official exam objective
Recommend the most appropriate approach relating the API data model of System APIs to that of their backend system based on specific requirements and organizational characteristics.

~7 min read · 6 practice questions

What the exam expects

  • Select a System API model from business requirements and agreed boundaries.
  • Distinguish business objects from physical database structures.
  • Place translation where the required contract is implemented.
  • Preserve identifier meanings and adaptable coded-value representations.

A backend model describes a source system's representation; an API model describes the exposed representation; a canonical model supplies an agreed independent vocabulary; a local identifier belongs to one system; a global identifier identifies an entity across the synchronization design.

Key facts

Customized instances
Detail
A System contract can hide their differences through mapping.
Relational storage
Detail
Reframe tables into required business-domain objects.
Business validation
Detail
Capability owners validate a bottom-up reframe and required channels.
Existing System contracts
Detail
Process conversion can preserve backend-specific interfaces below a canonical Process contract.
Process identity
Detail
Global identity is the documented CIM Process perspective.
Target identity
Detail
System id follows the target system perspective.
External identity
Detail
Retain the global value separately when the target supports it.
Mutable code list
Detail
A string can avoid freezing a backend-owned catalog in the schema.
Model refinement
Detail
Revisit the model for natural implementation and domain insight.
Shared language
Detail
Carry refined concepts through conversation, diagrams and code.
Sources for this section (5)
  • Why is a divide between model analysis and software design harmful?
  • When the team's model language changes, which implementation names should follow it?
  • Which collaborative modeling technique lets a team test whether its vocabulary expresses an interaction clearly?

The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.

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