API reviews are part of the overall API lifecycle. They are used to check that an API’s design matches the API design guidelines. API reviews are also an important step in making sure that the API landscape evolves and grows in a coherent way.
Designing Useful and Usable APIs
API reviews are only one step in the overall lifecycle. Before they happen, and overall design process has to ensure that a useful API is being designed. This typically happens by aligning the API with a business capability map, which allows to clearly identification the business purpose and value of the API. Once that value-oriented alignment exists, the next goal is to now create a usable API for this value proposition.