Platform Engineering Guidelines

Introduction

Platform Engineering focuses on building and maintaining internal developer platforms that improve developer experience, productivity, and software delivery capabilities. This document outlines standards and best practices for designing, implementing, and evolving internal developer platforms within Bayat projects.

Core Principles

Self-Service by Design

Enable developers to provision resources without dependency on platform teams
Provide intuitive interfaces for common developer workflows
Automate repetitive tasks and reduce cognitive load
Design for minimal friction in the developer journey
Balance self-service with appropriate governance

Golden Paths

Create opinionated, well-supported paths for common workflows
Document clear entry points for different developer journeys
Balance standardization with flexibility for edge cases
Ensure golden paths evolve based on developer feedback
Support deviation from golden paths when necessary

Internal Developer Portal

Provide a single entry point for developer services and resources
Centralize documentation, tools, and service catalogs
Implement service ownership and metadata management
Support discoverability of internal services and APIs
Integrate monitoring and operational insights

Platform as a Product

Treat internal platforms as products with users (developers)
Apply product management principles to platform development
Define clear platform roadmaps and prioritization framework
Establish feedback loops with platform consumers
Measure platform adoption and effectiveness

Platform Components

Service Catalog

Maintain comprehensive inventory of internal services
Define standard metadata for all services
Implement clear ownership and support model
Provide service discovery mechanisms
Include service health and documentation links

Infrastructure Self-Service

Enable self-service provisioning of environments
Implement infrastructure as code templates
Provide standardized configuration management
Support automated resource cleanup
Include cost visibility and optimization

CI/CD Pipelines

Offer standardized CI/CD pipeline templates
Implement secure build processes
Provide deployment automation
Include integrated testing frameworks
Support canary and blue/green deployment strategies

Monitoring and Observability

Implement standardized observability stack
Provide application instrumentation libraries
Offer centralized logging and metrics collection
Include distributed tracing capabilities
Support custom dashboarding and alerting

Security Integration

Embed security scanning in developer workflows
Implement secrets management solutions
Provide identity and access management
Include compliance verification
Support vulnerability management

Platform Implementation

Platform Architecture

Design modular, extensible platform components
Implement API-first approach for all platform services
Define clear integration points and contracts
Create scalable and resilient platform infrastructure
Document platform architecture decisions

Reference Architecture

┌───────────────────────────────────┐
│    Internal Developer Portal      │
└───────────────┬───────────────────┘
                │
┌───────────────┼───────────────────┐
│               │                   │
│  ┌────────────▼─────────────┐     │
│  │  Service Catalog & APIs  │     │
│  └────────────┬─────────────┘     │
│               │                   │
│  ┌────────────▼─────────────┐     │
│  │   Platform Middleware    │     │
│  └────────────┬─────────────┘     │
│               │                   │
│  ┌────────────▼─────────────┐     │
│  │     Platform Services    │     │
│  └────────────┬─────────────┘     │
│               │                   │
└───────────────┼───────────────────┘
                │
┌───────────────▼───────────────────┐
│      Underlying Infrastructure    │
└───────────────────────────────────┘

Platform API Design

Create consistent, intuitive API interfaces
Implement API versioning and backward compatibility
Design for appropriate granularity and composability
Provide thorough API documentation
Include comprehensive error handling and status codes

User Interface Guidelines

Design intuitive UI for developer portal
Implement consistent navigation and information architecture
Provide clear visual hierarchy and actionable elements
Support accessibility requirements
Implement responsive design for different devices

Configuration Management

Define configuration management strategy
Implement secure configuration storage
Support environment-specific configurations
Create clear configuration inheritance model
Provide configuration validation and verification

Developer Workflows

Onboarding Experience

Design frictionless developer onboarding
Create standardized development environment setup
Provide project templates and starter kits
Include interactive tutorials and examples
Support progressive disclosure of complexity

Local Development

Provide local development environment tools
Implement consistency between local and production
Support debugging and troubleshooting capabilities
Create rapid feedback loops for developers
Include offline development capabilities

Testing Workflows

Define standard testing practices
Provide testing utilities and frameworks
Support test data management
Implement test environment provisioning
Include performance and security testing tools

Deployment Pipelines

Create standardized deployment workflows
Implement environment promotion strategies
Support release management and versioning
Include rollback capabilities
Provide deployment verification

Operational Tasks

Enable self-service operational capabilities
Implement runbook automation
Provide incident management tools
Support routine maintenance tasks
Include capacity planning tools

Governance and Operation

Platform Team Structure

Define platform team composition and skills
Establish clear roles and responsibilities
Create engagement model with development teams
Implement support and SLA framework
Define escalation paths and incident response

Change Management

Establish platform release process
Implement communication strategies for changes
Provide deprecation policies and timelines
Support backward compatibility
Include migration assistance for breaking changes

Adoption Strategy

Create compelling value proposition for developers
Implement incremental rollout approach
Provide comprehensive documentation and training
Identify and support platform champions
Measure and communicate platform benefits

Compliance and Security

Integrate compliance requirements into platform
Implement security by design principles
Provide audit trails and evidence collection
Support regulatory requirements
Include data sovereignty capabilities

Measurement and Improvement

Platform Metrics

Track platform usage and adoption
Measure developer productivity improvements
Monitor platform reliability and performance
Collect developer satisfaction feedback
Assess value delivery and business impact

Continuous Improvement

Establish feedback collection mechanisms
Implement regular platform retrospectives
Create improvement prioritization framework
Support experimentation and innovation
Maintain platform technical excellence

Maturity Model

Define platform maturity across different dimensions:

Dimension	Level 1: Initial	Level 2: Managed	Level 3: Defined	Level 4: Measured	Level 5: Optimizing
Self-Service	Manual processes with human gatekeepers	Basic self-service for limited resources	Comprehensive self-service capabilities	Self-service with guardrails and verification	Intelligent self-service with recommendations
Developer Experience	Ad-hoc tools and processes	Basic standardized tooling	Integrated developer portal and workflows	Data-driven DX improvements	Predictive and personalized DX
Governance	Reactive governance	Basic policies and standards	Automated policy enforcement	Continuous compliance monitoring	Risk-based governance model
Automation	Limited automation	Key workflows automated	Comprehensive automation	Self-healing automation	AI-assisted automation
Platform Adoption	Early adopters	Growing adoption	Widespread adoption	Measured value delivery	Culture of continuous improvement

Tool Recommendations

Developer Portals

Open Source: Backstage (Spotify), Clutch (Lyft), Port
Commercial: Humanitec, OpsLevel, Cortex, Shipa

Infrastructure Automation

Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Pulumi, AWS CDK
Configuration Management: Ansible, Chef, Puppet
Container Orchestration: Kubernetes, OpenShift
Service Mesh: Istio, Linkerd, Consul

CI/CD Platforms

Continuous Integration: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, GitLab CI
Continuous Delivery: ArgoCD, Flux, Spinnaker, Harness
Build Tools: Bazel, Gradle, Maven, Nx

Observability

Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog
Logging: Elasticsearch, Loki, Splunk
Tracing: Jaeger, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry
APM: New Relic, Dynatrace, AppDynamics

Implementation Roadmap

Phase 1: Foundation

Establish platform team and vision
Implement basic developer portal
Create initial service catalog
Set up fundamental CI/CD capabilities
Implement core infrastructure automation

Phase 2: Expansion

Enhance self-service capabilities
Implement comprehensive observability
Integrate security and compliance
Expand golden paths coverage
Improve developer documentation

Phase 3: Optimization

Implement advanced platform analytics
Create developer productivity tooling
Optimize platform performance and reliability
Build cross-platform integration
Implement feedback-driven improvements

Phase 4: Innovation

Implement AI-assisted development
Create predictive platform capabilities
Support advanced deployment strategies
Implement platform experimentation framework
Enable developer-driven platform extension

Case Studies

Example: Developer Environment Provisioning

Before Platform Engineering:

Manual setup taking 2-3 days per developer
Inconsistent environments leading to "works on my machine" issues
Limited documentation and tribal knowledge
High support burden on infrastructure teams

After Platform Engineering:

Self-service environment provisioning in minutes
Standardized environments with proper governance
Comprehensive documentation in developer portal
90% reduction in environment-related support tickets

Example: Deployment Pipeline Standardization