Integrators build on an API for years, so an unclear versioning policy turns every change into a support ticket. This deck explains the policy to developers and partners in five parts: why versioning matters, the rules for each version, the lifecycle timeline, the deprecation steps and the help available during migration. Each slide carries one rule or one date, so the argument can be followed and checked.

The sample is for the fictional Driftwood Systems, with a version 1 sunset in August, read-only mode from June and six months of notice for every partner. Replace the version names, dates, contacts and support terms with your own, and link each rule to the changelog entry that will record it.