In the scope of a company, organization or team, the document known as guidelines is a set of best practices or hints provided by a group of subject matter experts in that particular technology. The most important aspects of it:
- Help to create a standardized way of completing specific tasks, making outcome more predictable and alike
- Help to identify do's and dont's with regards to a specific technology or tool
- Help to avoid gotchas or problems related with company specifics
- Gather the knowledge of several Subject Matter Experts and prevent others for falling in frequent caveats or mistakes
This is a set of general rules and recommendations that have to be followed along the entire API lifecycle of any API regardless of its type.
Note In any case, the content in the guidelines should be taken as recommendations, not something that needs to be done in a mandatory way.