EXPERTInfrastructuresoftware architect

Design a Platform Engineering Strategy

Design an internal developer platform strategy to improve developer productivity and standardize infrastructure across 50+ engineering teams.

Estimated Time: 60 minutes
#platform-engineering#devops#infrastructure#developer-experience
Solution Overview

Build self-service platform with golden paths, implement InnerSource model, and measure developer experience metrics.

Hints to Get Started
1

How do you measure developer productivity?

2

Consider the buy vs build decision

3

Think about adoption and change management

Context

Platform Engineering aims to reduce cognitive load on product teams by providing self-service infrastructure capabilities.

Metrics

operational

  • Platform availability
  • Incident response time

platform adoption

  • % teams using golden paths
  • Self-service success rate

developer productivity

  • Deployment frequency
  • Lead time
  • Time to first commit
Golden Paths

examples

  • Standard microservice template
  • Database provisioning workflow
  • Deployment pipeline

definition

Opinionated, well-supported ways to build and deploy services

flexibility

Allow deviation but make the right thing the easy thing

Team Structure

funding model

Central budget vs chargeback

platform teams

  • Infrastructure
  • Developer Experience
  • Security
  • Data Platform

interaction modes

  • X-as-a-Service
  • Collaboration
  • Facilitation
Rollout Strategy

phases

  • MVP with early adopters
  • Feedback and iteration
  • Broader rollout
  • Continuous improvement

change management

Training, documentation, champions program

Platform Components

governance

  • Cost management
  • Security scanning
  • Compliance automation

infrastructure

  • Kubernetes clusters
  • Service mesh
  • Observability stack
  • CI/CD pipelines

developer experience

  • Service templates
  • CLI tools
  • Documentation portal
  • Self-service UI