Platform engineering enhances productivity of development teams by facilitating self-service capabilities which dramatically reduce the dependencies on IT support for setting up essential project infrastructure. However, the advantages can only be realized if the platform engineering team is well-equipped with the right skills, structural organization, and operational processes.

“Having a solid team simplifies the experience both for those who use and those who develop the platform,” mentioned Ryan Cook, a senior principal software engineer at Red Hat.

Luca Galante, the VP of product and growth at identity provider company Humanitec and an organizer at PlatformCon, stated that an essential skill for platform engineering teams is maintaining a product mindset that pursues continuous development through a robust feedback loop with the teams using the platforms, as opposed to merely building software and considering the task complete.

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“It’s really about viewing developers as internal customers, addressing their needs and resolving their challenges,” mentioned Galante.

Cook concurred, emphasizing, “To succeed, it’s crucial to understand the requirements of the teams and those who create the platforms.”

Effective communication is essential since platforms are interconnected with every facet of an engineering organization. This interaction spans across various teams including developers, infrastructure and operations teams, security groups, architects, executives, and others.

“For universal agreement, the platform team must have a dedicated internal marketer who can align the platform development with the benefits it offers to the interests of various stakeholders,” Galante elaborated.

For instance, a development team that is experiencing long waits from the infrastructure team could be sold on a platform by being told it’s going to reduce wait times and improve developer experience. It could be sold to the security team as something that is going to enforce governance and policy by default. And it could be sold to the infrastructure team as something that is going to reduce the need to do manual configurations every time a developer needs something.

Thus, there needs to be someone on the platform engineering team who is able to articulate and communicate these benefits to the various stakeholders, so that everyone understands this is a worthwhile endeavor.

A third important skill is deep technical capability and understanding, said Zohar Einy, CEO of Port, another IDP provider. He explained that it’s important for a platform engineer to have an understanding of how the components of the company’s technical stack are set up, what development tools are being used, and so on.

“They need to have a very good understanding on how things are wired and how the platform is built behind the scenes,” he said.

Red Hat’s Cook advocates for the importance of having team members with varied expertise, such as telemetry, security, development, or virtualization. He believes that having experts in specific areas not only boosts the confidence of those specialists but also provides relief to others, allowing them to focus on their own strengths. This mutual reliance fosters a positive and supportive internal team dynamic, Cook explains.

Galante outlines four critical roles that every platform team should include: the head of platform, platform product manager, platform engineers, and infrastructure platform engineers. The head of platform’s role is crucial as they must engage and convince the upper management in departments like legal, compliance, and finance about the platform’s value. This role is essential in positioning the platform as a valuable asset rather than a cost burden.

They will also continuously update those stakeholders on the progress throughout the platform’s life cycle.

The platform product manager is the person responsible for making sure that the platform is actually made. They’re also there to facilitate compromise for the different stakeholders, like making sure that the security team is happy because security is enforced by the platform or that the architects are happy because the platform fits within the broader enterprise architecture.

They are also responsible for making sure that the end users — the developers — are happy with the platform and actually want to use it. According to Galante, there is a fine line between abstracting away the underlying complexity of the infrastructure while also keeping enough context for developers to do their jobs properly.

“You want to provide developers with paved roads and really intuitive ways of interacting with your increasingly complex tool chain … But at the end of the day, they’re still engineers. They want to be able to still have some level of control and context around the work that they’re doing. And so that’s what the platform product manager is really focused on,” said Galante.

The final two positions discussed are those of platform engineers and infrastructure platform engineers. The distinction arises because platform engineers represent the perspectives of the developers for whom they create, whereas infrastructure platform engineers advocate for the interests of the I&O team.

Galante points out the usual emphasis on enriching the developer experience, stressing the importance of also addressing the concerns of the I&O team.

“You can liken the platform to a vending machine that you’re tasked with maintaining, expanding, and offering as a service across the organization,” he explains. “This underscores the necessity for the role of the infrastructure platform engineer, who often emerges from the infrastructure sector to forge a connection ensuring both viewpoints are integrated within the platform team.”

Einy notes that several existing roles have the potential to smoothly transition into the platform engineering team. These include DevOps engineers, technical product managers, and SREs.

According to Einy, DevOps encompasses a broad spectrum, featuring engineers who focus on infrastructure while others concentrate on user experience. He notes that those who managed user interfaces are well-suited to transition into platform engineering roles.

“Originally, platform engineering tasks fell under the DevOps umbrella, but they have since evolved into a distinct role,” Port mentioned.

Cook pointed out that DevOps professionals often endure the challenges involved in software release and maintenance, enabling them to contribute valuable insights and experiences.

Einy also thinks that technical product managers could be effective members of a platform engineering team, as their roles require them to possess a comprehensive technical understanding of their products.

Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) are naturally suited to excel as platform engineers due to their focus on maintaining high-quality standards, minimizing the mean time to repair (MTTR), and enhancing the resilience of an organization.

“Platform engineering fundamentally involves establishing and upholding standards, whilst ensuring the resilience and efficiency of systems,” Einy explained.

Upon forming a platform engineering team, it is crucial to foster robust collaboration among team members and with the stakeholders for whom they develop solutions. Cook suggests fostering a culture where engineers respect one another and value each other’s time.

He further noted that incorporating various specialists into the team encourages mutual reliance and familiarity among the members. “Having smaller sub-teams of experts reduces friction because they are united in their efforts,” he stated.

Embracing a platform-as-a-product perspective is crucial when engaging with the various stakeholders involved in platform development. This engagement should be seen as an ongoing process rather than a singular event.

As Einy notes, platform engineering teams ought to engage in regular surveys to gather feedback. This involves developing proficiency in crafting effective surveys, which includes framing the right questions, establishing objectives for the feedback, and properly interpreting the results.

Moreover, Einy emphasizes the importance of data analysis concerning the platform’s usage. This includes identifying who the users are, determining which parts of the platform are utilized, and tracking the frequency of its use.

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