Rate the difficulty of each of the following challenges to a successful API implementation.

In our survey on implementing and managing an API program, it seemed like the IT organization has a good grip on the process of identifying the APIs to be exposed and selecting a suitable technology since fewer than half of respondents rated these as significant challenges. On the other hand, according to Claude Baudoin, "the lifecycle management of the APIs only seriously concerned half of the people surveyed, and this is a bit alarming. Creating and exposing a set of APIs without having a well-defined way to decide on the creation, modification, and retirement of the APIs, or thinking that it is easy, is likely to lead to architectural difficulties and an excessive maintenance workload. The techniques and tools of application portfolio management should be applied to APIs, the usage of each API should be tracked in order to understand the impact of a change, and the forward compatibility of applications must be a key requirement when planning updates to the API portfolio."

* Excerpted from " API Programs: Strategic or Tactical?," () Cutter Benchmark Review, Vol. 14, No. 1