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# How to Use the Low-Cost Airline Model to Manage External API Integrations in Education Services

An education services family business running DSDM with a medium team of six to fifteen people has an external API integration problem. The company operates a learning management platform that helps schools and tutoring centers manage courses, assignments, and student progress. It has been around for eleven years, has twenty six employees, and is still owned by the founding family. (1/41)

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The product development organization for the company's new parent communication portal has twelve people organized as one medium team running DSDM. The external API integrations are poorly managed. The platform integrates with seven external APIs: Google Classroom, Zoom, Stripe for payments, Twilio for notifications, Google Calendar, Dropbox for file storage, and Canvas LMS. (2/41)
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That means the platform depends on seven outside systems and is subject to seven outside change schedules. When an API changes, the platform breaks. When the platform breaks, parents cannot access the portal. When parents cannot access the portal, they are unhappy. When parents are unhappy, schools complain. When schools complain, the company loses contracts. (3/41)
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Losing contracts cost the company seventy eight thousand dollars last quarter. That was thirty seven percent of the quarterly revenue from the parent communication portal. The external API integrations must be managed better. (4/41)
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Herb Kelleher built Southwest Airlines on the low-cost airline model. The insight was simple. Kelleher realized that the biggest problem in the airline industry was the tendency to add complexity that did not matter to customers. That made operations complicated. Complicated operations broke. Broken operations delayed flights. Delayed flights made unhappy customers. Unhappy customers left. That killed companies. (5/41)
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Kelleher attacked the tendency to add complexity that did not matter to customers. He created the low-cost airline model based on one principle: Only do what matters to the customer. Cut everything else. That meant focusing. Kelleher asked one question: Does this matter to the customer? He evaluated every decision, kept what mattered, and cut everything else. Simple operations meant things did not break. Flights were on time. That built Southwest Airlines. (6/41)
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When Kelleher designed the Southwest Airlines fleet, he did not add complexity. He asked Does this matter to the customer? He evaluated every aircraft type and kept only Boeing 737s. Simple maintenance meant reliable planes. Reliable planes meant on-time flights. That built Southwest Airlines. (7/41)
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Kelleher applied the same thinking to every part of the business. When he designed the boarding process, he asked Does this matter to the customer? He evaluated every boarding method and kept open seating. Fast boarding meant flights left on time. That built Southwest Airlines. (8/41)
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For an education services family business, the external API integration problem is the same. The company adds complexity that does not matter to parents. Complicated integrations break. Broken integrations cost seventy eight thousand dollars. Kelleher's low-cost airline model says: only do what matters to the customer. Cut everything else. Applied to API integrations: only integrate what matters to the user. Cut everything else (9/41)
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. That is how you manage external API integrations better and save the company.

## The Core Principle (10/41)

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Kelleher's low-cost airline model was built on a simple insight. The best way to manage external API integrations is to stop integrating with every API that seems useful, hoping none of them break, and losing money when they change without warning and cause outages. Instead, evaluate every API integration against one question: Does this integration directly matter to the parent using the portal? Only keep the integrations that pass that test. Cut or simplify everything else. (11/41)
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The platform will integrate with fewer APIs. The ones it does integrate with will be the ones parents actually depend on. The total number of integration failures will drop dramatically. Kelleher did not build Southwest Airlines by adding complexity that did not matter to customers, hoping operations would be simple, and losing money because planes were unreliable and flights were delayed. He built it by only doing what mattered to the customer and cutting everything else (12/41)
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. That focus and simplicity built Southwest Airlines.

For an education services family business, the external API integration problem is the same. The company adds complexity that does not matter to parents. That costs seventy eight thousand dollars. Kelleher's low-cost airline model adapted to API management says: only integrate what matters to the user. Cut everything else. That is how you manage external API integrations better and save the company. (13/41)

Jun 7 at 4:55pmWeb
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## Four Steps to Apply the Low-Cost Airline Model to Managing External API Integrations

1. Only Integrate What Matters to the User by Creating a User Value Assessment That Evaluates Each of the Seven Current API Integrations Against One Question So That Only Integrations That Directly Matter to Parents Are Kept (14/41)

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Kelleher only did what mattered to the customer at Southwest Airlines. That focus kept costs low. That built Southwest Airlines. You should only integrate what matters to the user by creating a user value assessment that evaluates each of the seven current API integrations against one question so that only integrations that directly matter to parents are kept. (15/41)
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For an education services family business, the user value assessment might look like this. The DSDM coach creates a spreadsheet with two columns: API name and user value score. The score is determined by one question: Would a parent notice if this integration disappeared tomorrow? Every API integration is evaluated. The team answers the question and knows what to do. (16/41)
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Google Classroom scores high. Parents would notice. It stays. Zoom scores high. Parents would notice. It stays. Stripe scores high. Parents would notice. It stays. Twilio scores low. Parents would not notice. It gets cut. Google Calendar scores medium. Some parents would notice. It gets simplified. Dropbox scores low. Parents would not notice. It gets cut. Canvas LMS scores high. Parents would notice. It stays. (17/41)
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The user value assessment is completed in one day. The team knows quickly and can act. Last quarter, the user value assessment was created in a one day effort. Evaluating seven API integrations meant two were cut and one was simplified. The platform went from seven integrations to four. That saved the company twenty one thousand dollars, which was the cost of maintaining three unnecessary integrations. (18/41)
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For a DSDM team of six to fifteen, the user value assessment should evaluate every current API integration against the question Would a user notice if this integration disappeared tomorrow? The assessment should be completed within two days. For DSDM, it should be part of the team's API management as a management tool. (19/41)
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2. Cut Everything Else by Removing the Two Cut API Integrations and Simplifying the One Simplified Integration So That the Platform Has Only Four Core Integrations Instead of Seven

Kelleher cut everything else at Southwest Airlines. That simplicity built Southwest Airlines. You should cut everything else by removing the two cut API integrations and simplifying the one simplified integration so that the platform has only four core integrations instead of seven. (20/41)

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For an education services family business, the cutting might look like this. The DSDM coach removes two API integrations. The team decommissions them by removing the code, the dependencies, the monitoring, and the alerts. The team no longer manages those integrations. (21/41)
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Twilio for notifications gets cut. The team switches to email only notifications. That removes one API and one less thing to manage. Dropbox for file storage gets cut. The team switches to local file storage. That removes one more API. Google Calendar gets simplified. The team removes the two way sync and keeps one way sync only. A simpler integration is less likely to break. (22/41)
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The total result is four core integrations: Google Classroom, Zoom, Stripe, and Canvas LMS. A simpler platform is more reliable. A more reliable platform means parents can access it. Last quarter, cutting two integrations and simplifying one meant integration failures dropped by fifty eight percent. That saved the company twenty thousand dollars in avoided failure costs. (23/41)
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For a DSDM team of six to fifteen, the cutting should remove at least the lowest value integrations. The simplifying should reduce the complexity of medium value integrations. For DSDM, the cutting and simplifying should be part of the team's API management.

3. Monitor What Remains by Creating a Simple Integration Health Dashboard That Tracks the Four Core Integrations and Shows Their Status at a Glance So That the Team Can See Problems Before Parents Do (24/41)

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Kelleher monitored what remained at Southwest Airlines. Seeing problems meant fixing them. That built Southwest Airlines. You should monitor what remains by creating a simple integration health dashboard that tracks the four core integrations and shows their status at a glance so that the team can see problems before parents do. (25/41)
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For an education services family business, the integration health dashboard might look like this. The DSDM coach creates a single webpage with four tiles, one per integration. Each tile shows three metrics: status, last successful sync, and error rate. (26/41)
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The Google Classroom tile shows green status, last sync two minutes ago, and a zero point one percent error rate. The Zoom tile shows green status, last sync five minutes ago, and a zero point three percent error rate. The Stripe tile shows green status, last sync one minute ago, and a zero point zero five percent error rate. The Canvas LMS tile shows yellow status, last sync forty five minutes ago, and a two point one percent error rate (27/41)
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. Yellow status means the team should investigate, find the problem, and fix it.

The dashboard is displayed on a monitor where the team sees it all the time. Catching problems quickly means parents do not notice. Last quarter, the dashboard was created in a two day effort. Displaying it on a monitor meant the team caught problems quickly. That saved the company nineteen thousand dollars in avoided unnoticed problems. (28/41)

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For a DSDM team of six to fifteen, the dashboard should have at least one tile per core integration with at least three metrics each. It should be visible to the team at all times. For DSDM, it should be part of the team's API management as a management tool. (29/41)
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4. Iterate by Running a Feedback Loop Every Two Weeks That Reviews the Four Core Integrations and the Health Dashboard and the User Value Assessment Based on What Is Working and What Is Not So That the API Management Gets Better Every Two Weeks (30/41)
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Kelleher iterated at Southwest Airlines. Getting better built Southwest Airlines. You should iterate by running a feedback loop every two weeks that reviews the four core integrations, the health dashboard, and the user value assessment based on what is working and what is not so that the API management gets better every two weeks. (31/41)
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For an education services family business, the feedback loop might look like this. The DSDM coach runs a thirty minute meeting every two weeks with three parts. Part one is ten minutes reviewing the four core integrations to check stability and make adjustments. Part two is ten minutes reviewing the health dashboard to check usefulness and make improvements. Part three is ten minutes reviewing the user value assessment to check accuracy and make updates. (32/41)
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Last quarter, the feedback loop was run six times. Reviewing the four core integrations six times meant two updates were made. The health dashboard was updated with a new parent complaint count metric so the team could correlate integration issues with parent complaints and prioritize better. The user value assessment was updated by upgrading Google Calendar from simplified to full because parents wanted two way sync. Making two updates meant better API management (33/41)