13 Internal developer platforms

 

This chapter covers

  • Creating a slick developer experience to enable fast flow
  • Determining the capabilities of an internal developer platform
  • Managing an internal developer platform with a modern product management approach
  • Deciding when to build an internal developer platform

Independent value streams enable fast flow by empowering teams to make most of the decisions that affect their value stream, like giving them more responsibility to deploy and support their applications. However, the extra responsibilities will be counterproductive if the complexity of building, deploying, and supporting code is too high. Teams will spend too much time on extraneous tasks that don’t contribute to product enhancements.

Making it as effortless as possible for teams to build, deploy, and support software through an outstanding developer experience (DX or DevEx) is essential to establishing truly independent value teams. Good DX enables teams to continuously deliver product enhancements rather than getting caught up in a web of intricate tasks just to get their code in front of users.

13.1 Developer experience

13.1.1 Zero to production in less than a day

13.1.2 Roll out the red carpet for teams to do continuous delivery

13.1.3 Delightful onboarding experience

13.1.4 Frictionless local development experience

13.1.5 Industry example: HMRC’s Multi-channel Digital Tax Platform (UK government)

13.2 Platform capabilities

13.2.1 Golden paths

13.2.2 Pipelines and environments

13.2.3 Observability

13.2.4 Software applications catalog