That One Script You Wrote is Now a Platform

Discussing how Conway's Law impacts our architecture and how organisational constraints can become product opportunities for platform teams.

Transcript

1. Richard BOWN That One Script You Wrote Is Now a Platform DevOops Meetup #4 - 22 November 2023
2. Consulting DevOps Engineer Likes: • Building (internal) products • DevOps, CI/CD, Automation, TDD, DDD • Socio-technical systems Dislikes: • Big transformations • Repeated, error-prone manual processes • Brittle pipelines • Writing more code than absolutely necessary RICHARD BOWN
4. https://teamtopologies.com/mission
7. me (this morning) “A platform isn’t always planned. It can be an engineering reaction to an organisational constraint.”
8. What Is a Platform Team and What Problems Do They Solve? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5M16qooAvo What Is a Platform Team and What Problems Do They Solve? Armon Dadgar
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zH7TIXcjEs Tips For Building Successful Platform Teams Dave Farley
10. Source: https://www.founderjar.com/types-of-technology-platforms/ https://www.founderjar.com/authors/#Anastasia_Belyh
12. SOMETIMES YOU ARE THE PLATFORM
13. “If the architecture of the system and the architecture of the organization are at odds, the architecture of the organization wins.” Ruth Malan (@visarch) Mel Conway
14. DISCOVERING THE PLATFORM TEAM How does it appear?
21. COGNITIVE OVERLOAD
22. The “failing DevOps team” is a symptom. You org is sick.
23. Source: https://web.devopstopologies.com/ https://blog.matthewskelton.net/2013/10/22/what-team-structure-is-right-for-devops-to- fl ourish/
24. Anti-Patterns of Platform Teams Jack of All Trades - too many services, not able to adequately provide them. Overloaded - too many teams to support, staff rotate rapidly including PO/PM, management unaware of what to do Fortress - behind their walls, they do what they like, poorly maintained tools are thrown to teams. Management often not in the loop Abandoned - setup by a small group in the past to do the right thing but now drifting with unclear responsibilities but a wide user base Well-Intentioned - a fully designed platform which is hard to use (Ivory Tower of Dave Farley) Organic - a platform has appeared from the mists. (Design by Accident of DF)
25. BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL (PLATFORM) TEAM
26. Productize your Services
27. Person Product Script Wiki Backstage etc.
28. Build the Thinnest Viable Platform https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thinnest-Viable-Platform-examples
29. https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template
30. Tension between Operational vs Planned Work is a Good Thing™
31. Bown’s Tips for Successful Platform Teams #1 Richard Bown 2023 - richardwbown.com
32. Bown’s Tips for Successful Platform Teams #2 Define Your Customer Focus on User Experience Self-Service as Possible Thinnest Viable Platform Richard Bown 2023 - richardwbown.com Product Thinking
33. Recognise Conway’s Law and Cognitive Load. Define your boundaries. Protect your service levels. Actively reduce scope. Bown’s Tips for Successful Platform Teams #3 Richard Bown 2023 - richardwbown.com
34. Richard BOWN https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-bown/ https://teamtopologies.com/all-tta/richard-bown https://www.meetup.com/fast- fl ow/