Scaling Platform Building: Balancing What Is Unique To Your Org And Common Across Teams

Overview
The article discusses the challenges of scaling platform engineering across multiple teams, highlighting the tension between unique team requirements and common, reusable solutions. It provides guidance on establishing a shared platform foundation while allowing flexibility for individual team contexts.

Key Takeaways

• Identify core platform capabilities that should be standardized across teams.
• Create governance processes that encourage collaboration without stifling innovation.
• Use modular architecture to enable teams to extend the platform for unique needs.
• Prioritize documentation and internal communication to reduce duplication of effort.
• Measure platform adoption and iterate based on feedback from engineering teams.

Who Would Benefit

• Engineering managers responsible for platform teams.
• Technical leaders overseeing multiple product teams.
• Senior architects designing organization-wide platforms.
• DevOps leads looking to standardize tooling and practices.
• CTOs and VP of Engineering focusing on scaling engineering operations.

Frameworks and Methodologies

• Platform as a Product mindset.
• Modular monolith / micro-frontend approaches.
• Agile governance frameworks.
• DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles.
• Capability maturity models for platform adoption.