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Platform engineering is a cohesive approach to software development that organizes all the toolchains and workflows in a delivery setup into "golden paths." This allows developers to self-service without building the required foundation for software applications from scratch. The experiences provided by the "golden paths" are exposed to developers via the Internal Development Platform (IDP), which is meant to streamline the development process, reduce complexity, and enhance productivity.
Platform engineering is the answer for top-performing engineering organizations to avoid the pitfalls of today’s DevOps reality, said Luca Galante, a Core Contributor at Platformengineering.org.
Indeed, the study commissioned by Qt Group and conducted by Forrester Consulting found that organizations increasingly implement platform engineering to improve cost efficiency and time to market while streamlining portfolio management and team coordination.
However, the study also found that executives see less accomplished by platform engineering than managers and developers. Experts said this can create internal tension regarding the goals and costs of platform engineering.
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Platform Engineering Increases Efficiency and Productivity
According to the study, 59% of survey respondents said improved development efficiency was the most significant benefit of their platform strategy. They added platform engineering decreased development time and increased productivity by streamlining processes and providing out-of-the-box, high-quality, consistent outcomes.
As a result, 50% of respondents said that adopting a platform engineering strategy in the past 12 months reduced the time to market.
The key to platform engineering is self-service, said Dave Swersky, a Platform Engineer and DevOps Specialist.
For example, suppose developers need to create a new mobile application or backend service. In that case, they can enter the IDP and choose the language, database, and authorization method from a series of menus. After deploying the code, the developers can make the necessary tweaks and modifications before releasing their application.
If the way to create new software is through the IDP, then developers know every time they create something new, they’re automatically using the best practices established for that engineering organization, Swersky said.
Executives and Managers View Platform Capabilities Differently
While most respondents said platform engineering increases productivity and efficiency, the Forrester survey found a discrepancy between how managers and executives (specifically C-level executives and vice presidents) view platforms as achieving the organization’s goals.
The survey found that managers averagely see around 50% being achieved via platform engineering in terms of:
- compliance with industry standards
- consistency of design systems
- automation of releases
- reusability of code
- use of standardized templates
In contrast, most executives see that only about 22-28% being achieved via platform engineering in these areas.
This is a strong indicator that there are no objective numbers available and organizations do not measure, Galante said. We have observed similar patterns while working with platform engineering initiatives.
Another problem might be miscommunication between middle management and executives, as very often they do not speak the same language and use different terminology or the same terms with different meanings, he added.
The Growing Pains Facing Platform Engineering
According to Galante, effectively implementing a platform is complex and time-consuming. He estimated that a platform initiative takes one to two years to implement.
If the organization doesn't get everybody on board with the platform, it's easy to lose momentum because it's a complex organizational transformation that touches all the different stakeholders, he said.
Before the adoption of platform engineering, developers frequently worked in siloed teams with disconnected workflows. They stitched together everything they needed to complete an application and then passed it to the operators to run with everything else in the ecosystem.
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Platform engineering attempts to unify siloed teams and disconnected workflows or at least provide a single point of entry for developers, product managers, and business technologists across the organization, said Jordan Chernev, Wayfair’s Senior Technology Executive for Platform Engineering and SRE in E-Commerce, Retail, and Real Estates. In practice, the implementation usually revolves around an IDP.
By promoting these workflows right and center for teams across the organization, groups can start forming shared experiences, he added. In the case of siloed platform teams optimizing for a local maximum, they can now contribute their patterns and workflows to the broader part of the enterprise, further eliminating cultural and technical silos.
However, the Forrester study highlighted some of the challenges surrounding the effective implementation of a platform. Survey respondents reported that 63% of embedded software still required custom development, revealing a low level of standardization despite the perceived platform maturity. Nearly half noted that balancing standardization with the need for customization is also a significant challenge in operating the engineering platform.
Tensions Around Standardization
While the standardization provided by an IDP is widely cited as one of the main benefits of platform engineering, the Qt Group’s commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that standardization can also be a challenge for companies implementing a platform.
Nearly half—49%—of respondents said integrating the platform with legacy systems was the main barrier to transitioning to a platform engineering strategy. Another 43% cited security and compliance requirements as their primary barriers.
Galante added that many organizations try to support every part of their legacy systems with their new IDP, which often does not make sense.
Platform engineering initiatives could save a lot of time, energy, and resources if they focus on applications that might use legacy systems but are still under active development, he said.
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While legacy applications that are already in maintenance mode do not deserve to be supported by the platform, as platform engineering initiatives aim to shorten the time to market for new products or features, this goal is obsolete for applications and infrastructure at the end of their life cycle, Galante added.
Regarding security and compliance, Galante said many platform teams make the mistake of bringing in security too late in the platform’s development process.
Again, this is more of a communication than a technical issue, he said. If security and compliance teams are consulted at the beginning of the platform engineering initiative, ideally in the early stage of the Minimum Viable Platform, the platform team can work on features that enable security and compliance by design.
Swersky noted that heavy regulation complicates platform integration in industries such as automotive and medical devices. As a result, using open-source platform engineering components can be time-consuming and risky.
49% of survey respondents in the Forrester study also considered security, safety, and compliance features essential for their platform engineering tool selections to meet industry-specific standards.
I can hand you a tool, but no one can promise it's inherently secure, Swersky said. The top security person and their team have to sift through this system line by line to determine whether or not it is secure enough to be used.
However, Swersky added that security and compliance should be improved once the platform engineering system is implemented since every piece of software is built with the same components.
If you build your IDP, and it is the approved way to deploy new software or create new products, you now have a record of every component that went into every system it ever made, he said. Having that record of how everything is built and what's out there allows you to remediate quickly and gives you the ability to demonstrate that you've got your ducks in a row.
Communication is the key; Agile Teams can Also Help
Communication is essential to bridging the gap between engineers and executives, and engineers should set clear goals to demonstrate to executives the value of their work.
Successful platform engineering is about a measured, cautious effort with concrete, narrowly targeted goals, and it takes time to do well, Swersky said. The way to make the case is with business outcomes.
Along with communication, Swersky believes that any platform engineering initiative requires a solid foundation in DevOps to enable cross-functional collaboration and enhance the organization’s Agile practices.
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Chernev added that improved collaboration frameworks and Agile practices could help align platform capabilities with business goals by "helping [executives and developers] realize gains in the platform team's north star metrics," citing Net Promoter Score (NPS), platform onboarding time, platform adoption rate, and key business outcomes achieved by platform users as a few examples.
All of these are pretty collaboration-focused and based, he said. Agile is helping level-set platform teams speak the same language in terms of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) with their internal customers, the developer teams.
Ultimately, Galante said the main challenge facing platform engineering is cultural and not technological.
I've never seen a single platform initiative fail because of the tech stack, he said. Platform engineering initiatives fail because they cannot get executives and other stakeholders on board.
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