We added support for multiple pets and pets other than dogs in chapter 16. In the OpenAPI definition for the PetSitter API, the Job schema had a property changed from dog to pets. José noticed that this had a knock-on effect with Max, the frontend developer. If Nidhi had released the backend change before Max was ready, a large portion of the PetSitter website would have stopped working. But because the team communicates often, this was hardly a problem—they could easily coordinate how to roll those changes out. But what will happen when the API is made public? How can those breaking changes be avoided? And if the team makes such changes after outsourcing the mobile project, how would that be handled?
In the team’s case, they have a small and easily managed API between the frontend and backend, as well as between José’s team and the mobile developers, but as it grows to include more consumers (and more developers), things will get harder to manage. After they release the API to the public, they won’t have that control anymore and will need to be considerate when making changes.