# Collaboration concepts Postman simplifies and brings together the mechanics of API collaboration to help you interactively plan, develop, publish, and maintain APIs within your team, company, and across the planet. In this topic, you'll learn about the types of teams and workflows for internal and external API collaboration in Postman. ## Teams and collaboration levels You can [collaborate in Postman internally](https://www.postman.com/postman-best-practices/internal-api-collaboration/) within a single team, multiple teams, or an entire company. You can also open up your collaboration to partners and consumers of your APIs around the world through the Postman API Network. How you decide to set up your teams and collaboration levels will depend on your API strategy. If you're new to Postman, try the no-cost entry to [collaboration features](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/api-collaboration-features/) with a [free](https://www.postman.com/pricing/) team of up to three members. To collaborate with more team members, features, and increased usage limits, you can [upgrade](/docs/billing/billing/#changing-your-plan) to a Basic, Professional, or Enterprise plan. When you're ready to scale your work, select **Upgrade** in the upper-right corner. To define your API strategy, it's important to do the following: * Decide and assign the right role and access in your API collaboration space, whether it's at a workspace, element, flow, or another level. * Enable your team members, guest users, partners, and consumers to work on and interact with a single source of truth for your APIs. Learn more about [function-based role types](/docs/administration/roles-and-permissions/#team-roles) and how to set them up in Postman. You can arrange users into [groups](/docs/administration/managing-your-team/user-groups/) that reflect your organizational structure. Users can [request Editor access](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/requesting-access-to-elements/) to workspaces and elements they initially can only view or try to access from a shared link, enabling you to assess and scale teams as needed. ## Collaboration workflows Postman enables you to collaborate in units from single teams to multiple companies in different phases of the API development lifecycle: * Prototype and iterate * Build, test, and deploy * Onboard and integrate with partners Collaboration workflows apply across all three types of workspaces: [internal, partner, and public](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/using-workspaces/overview/). ### Prototype and iterate To begin API development, an engineering team can create a prototype collection in an [internal workspace](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/using-workspaces/create-workspaces/) with requests to represent the API to be built. To prepare the collection for further iterations, the engineering team can do the following: * Add [examples](/docs/sending-requests/response-data/examples/) to clarify responses and status codes. * Add [descriptions](/docs/publishing-your-api/document-a-collection/) to explain how the API and each API endpoint works. * Add [tags](/docs/collections/use-collections/collaborate-with-collections/#tag-a-collection) to enable easier search. * Set up a [mock server](/docs/design-apis/mock-apis/set-up-mock-servers/) to generate a mock URL and simulate the API before it's production ready, instead of waiting for the implementation. The team can then [fork the collection](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/using-version-control/forking-elements/) into another internal workspace and invite potential consumers to provide feedback. When interacting with a prototype collection, the consumer team can do the following: * Review the collection and leave feedback in the form of [comments](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/comments/). * Simulate integrating the new API using the mock URL. * Fork the collection and propose changes by editing the requests and responses and creating a pull request. The changes the consumer team makes can be pulled back by the engineering team to update the original collection and iterate on the API. The team can then share changes to the collections using [workspace updates](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/using-workspaces/internal-workspaces/workspace-updates/). ### Build, test, and deploy Engineers use the collection as a reference to implement the API in code. As they write code, they continuously test and debug the API to ensure the API is working as expected. Consumers can simultaneously integrate the API into their front-end application or their own service using mock servers. QA teams can fork the collection to their testing workspace and write scripts for functional, regression, and end-to-end [testing](/docs/tests-and-scripts/test-apis/test-apis/). Next, they can validate tests manually by sending an individual request or, once the testing collection is set up, by running the tests in the [Collection Runner](/docs/tests-and-scripts/run-tests/run-tests-manually/). Then, you can check the run report for failures. DevOps teams can select collections and environments to be run as a part of the build. They can connect Postman to their own API workflows using [integrations with popular third-party solutions](https://learning.postman.com/docs/integrations/intro-integrations/). Integrations enable automatic sharing of data between Postman and the other tools that DevOps relies on for API development, such as GitHub, Slack, CircleCI, Amazon API Gateway, and New Relic. For publicly accessible APIs, DevOps teams can [schedule runs](/docs/tests-and-scripts/run-tests/run-tests-on-schedule/) in sync with nightly builds to continuously ensure quality over a period of time. ### Integrate with partners [Partner Workspaces](https://learning.postman.com/docs/collaborating-in-postman/using-workspaces/partner-workspaces/overview/) in Postman allow for direct collaboration with external partners, facilitating API consumption and joint API project work. This type of workspace helps to establish a central source of truth and integrates partner projects into the Postman team for efficient partnerships. With [multi-partner mode](/docs/collaborating-in-postman/using-workspaces/partner-workspaces/multipartner-workspaces/), you don't have to manage a separate workspace for each partner. If you want to share the same collections and API resources with multiple partners, you can invite partners to test APIs at a moment's notice. This enables you to showcase real-world workflows and maintain a reference workspace for API endpoints and documentation. Explore [Postman Best Practices for Partner Collaboration](https://www.postman.com/postman-best-practices/partner-api-collaboration/) for additional guidance.