Platform engineering
On this page 9 topics
Overview
Topics
- Internal developer platforms
- golden paths
- self-service capabilities
Learn first
3.5 h of practice (estimate)
Learning outcomes
- Explain internal developer platforms, golden paths, and the platform-as-a-product mindset.
- Identify repeated toil across teams that a platform capability should remove.
- Design a self-service capability with sensible defaults and escape hatches.
- Measure platform adoption and developer satisfaction.
Lessons
Lab and exercises
Lab
SRB-010-LAB1 · Golden path for FulfillCo
Outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 4 · Time: ~3.5 h
- Interview the four teams and list toil.
- Build a service template with pipeline, telemetry, security scans, and deploy.
- Add defaults and an escape hatch.
- Time a new service from template to staging and define adoption metrics.
Acceptance: a new service reaches staging in under one hour using the template.
Exercises
| ID | Outcome | Task |
|---|---|---|
| SRB-010-EX01 | 1 | Write a three-sentence pitch for why FulfillCo needs a platform team. |
| SRB-010-EX02 | 2 | List five toil items across the four teams from the case. |
| SRB-010-EX03 | 2 | Rank two toil items by teams affected and hours saved. |
| SRB-010-EX04 | 3 | Design the golden path template contents and one escape hatch. |
| SRB-010-EX05 | 3 | Add guardrails for self-service database requests. |
| SRB-010-EX06 | 4 | Define three adoption metrics and a satisfaction survey question. |
Show solutions
- EX01 Four teams repeat setup; inconsistent services; platform reduces toil and lowers cognitive load.
- EX02 Pipeline setup, telemetry wiring, secrets, scans, deployment config.
- EX03 Rank with numbers; the item affecting four teams with most hours first.
- EX04 Template, CI, deploy, dashboards, SLO file; escape hatch: custom deploy with team-owned pipeline.
- EX05 Default sizing, encryption, backups; policy denies public endpoints; quotas.
- EX06 Adoption %, time to staging, tickets avoided; question: how easy was it to ship your last service?
Workplace evidence: a reusable capability other teams adopted.
Quiz
Outcomes: O1 platform mindset · O2 identifying toil · O3 self-service design · O4 measurement.
A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.
Practical part
Platform capability proposal: submit a one-page proposal with evidence and metrics. Pass: 70% on the quiz and a proposal backed by user evidence.
Common mistakes
Mandates instead of paved roads; platforms built without talking to users.
Assessment
Platform capability proposal.
Workplace evidence
A reusable capability other teams adopted.
Career relevance
The Staff capstone (STF-CAP) builds on this.