# Are you API-first? Here are 4 implementations

“[API-first](https://www.postman.com/api-first/)” has become a hotly debated topic and [popular API buzzword](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/11/01/8-digital-and-api-buzzwords-you-should-care-about-and-why) in recent years. You can be API-first if your business commercializes APIs and provides APIs as a product. But API-first also describes an approach for API producers involving [defining and designing APIs and schema before beginning development](https://www.postman.com/state-of-api/api-first-strategies/#api-first-strategies). Can you still call yourself API-first if you don’t have an API contract, like an OpenAPI Specification or a Postman Collection? Can you still call yourself API-first if you use [OpenAPI](https://blog.postman.com/what-is-openapi/), but only for [documenting your API](https://www.postman.com/api-platform/api-documentation/), and not for designing it too?

## API-first in theory vs. in practice

 Several years ago, I began sharing how your organization can be API-first as a theoretical approach to development. After a number of conversations with teams struggling to implement an API-first approach in their own way and with their own constraints, I’ve distilled the tactics of API-first approaches into four categories of implementation. Your team may have a different name for your approach, and likely with tweaks in the workflows here and there. But this is what API-first looks like in practice in 2022. Four implementations of API-first workflows: - Contract-first
- Requirements-first
- Code-first
- API-last
 
 ![Four implementations of API-first workflows](https://blog.postman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Sync-specs@2x-64-1000x551.png)Four implementations of API-first workflows## Watch and learn

 Check out the ["Are You API-First?"](https://youtu.be/6brCRaqxNe8) video below featuring four implementations of API-first workflows: 

## API-first can buy happiness

 Being API-first takes work. Some organizations have struggled to secure buy-in from either leadership or practitioners. Others have struggled with quality, governance, and [observability](https://blog.postman.com/api-first-observability-for-the-api-era/). Despite the work involved to get there, API-first leaders believe in the benefits of an API-first approach to development, such as launching new products faster, creating better software, and being more productive. And 75% of respondents in the [State of the API survey](https://www.postman.com/state-of-api/api-first-strategies/#api-first-strategies) also agreed that developers at API-first companies are happier. ![Postman billboard saying “Developers at API-first companies are happier”](https://blog.postman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image1-1000x733.jpg)Postman billboard saying “Developers at API-first companies are happier”