How APITect Helped During a Team Transition

Background

A mid-sized software company was going through a team restructuring. Three backend engineers were moving to different projects, and two new developers were taking over their API systems. The company had been operating for several years with a stable product serving multiple client applications.

They reached out to us on Linkedin to discuss API management practices during team transitions. At the time, they weren't looking for new tools—they just wanted to understand what works for them.

Their Existing Setup

The company had taken standard steps for the transition:

• Updated documentation for major endpoints
• Maintained Postman collections with example requests
• Scheduled two weeks of knowledge transfer sessions
• The APIs were working fine in production

During our initial conversation, we asked how the new team would understand API behavior after the handoff period ended. Their plan was straightforward: review documentation, check Postman collections, read the code, and ask questions during the transition period.

The Problem That Emerged

About three weeks into the transition, they reached out again. The new developers were competent, but progress was slower than expected.

The core issue: API knowledge was scattered across multiple sources, and none of them told the complete story.

What they found:

• Documentation described original API behavior, not the current state after two years of modifications
• Postman collections showed example requests but didn't explain validation rules, edge cases, or why certain structures existed
• The code contained the truth, but extracting behavior required reading through implementation details
• The original developers had moved to new projects and weren't readily available for questions

This created daily friction. Frontend developers needed to verify response formats. QA needed to understand expected behavior. Backend developers couldn't confidently answer questions without checking the code each time.

Nothing was broken. Work continued. But every task took longer than it should have.

Our Conversation

We explained what we were seeing: their API knowledge existed but was fragmented. The new team was capable of finding answers, but it required significant effort for routine questions.

We suggested they import their existing Postman collections into APITect and use it as a central reference for API behavior. No process overhaul, no migration project—just try it with the APIs they were actively working on.

They agreed to test it.

Implementation

One developer spent about an hour importing and configuring their most frequently used APIs into APITect. They focused on:

• Request and response schemas
• Validation rules
• Expected behavior for edge cases
• Error responses

For new API development, they started defining endpoints in APITect before writing backend code.

Results After Four Weeks

The friction reduced noticeably:

For Backend Developers:

• Could reference clear API definitions instead of reading code for basic questions
• Gained confidence modifying endpoints because behavior was explicitly documented
• Stopped being the bottleneck for API clarifications

For Frontend Developers:

• Had a reliable source for response structures and field types
• Could identify issues during design phase, before backend implementation
• Reduced back-and-forth about API expectations

For QA:

• Could write test cases based on clear expected behavior
• Stopped waiting for backend developers to answer basic questions about responses

For New Endpoints:

One specific example: they designed three new APIs in APITect first and shared with frontend. Frontend immediately identified a structural issue with the response format that would have required backend rework if caught later. Fixed in the design phase instead.

What Changed

The company didn't change their development process significantly. They still wrote documentation, maintained Postman collections, and followed their normal workflow.

What changed was having a single source of truth for API behavior that everyone could reference. The new developers no longer needed to ask questions that the original team would have answered instantly. The knowledge was just available.

After a month, they reported that the new team was working at normal speed and felt confident making API changes.

Key Takeaway

Team transitions are common in software development. The challenge isn't transferring general knowledge about system architecture—that's straightforward. The challenge is transferring the detailed, implicit knowledge about how APIs actually behave.

APITect addressed this by providing a central place where API behavior was explicitly defined and accessible to everyone. It didn't replace their existing tools or documentation. It gave them a reference that worked alongside their existing workflow and eliminated the constant need for clarification.

For teams going through transitions, having that clarity available makes a measurable difference in how quickly new developers can work independently.