In the world of software engineering, an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) serves as the backbone of your technological infrastructure, empowering your developers to efficiently build, deploy, and manage applications. However, it’s not just the technical stack that determines the success of an IDP; factors like onboarding, ease of use, and support are equally —if not more— important. Paying attention to these can be the difference between a smooth-running machine and a cluttered, under-utilized platform.

Let’s dive into these critical aspects for building a successful IDP.

Onboarding: Setting Developers Up for Success

Imagine this: A new developer joins your team, ready to contribute, but they hit a documentation wall that’s about learning the platform, not executing tasks. Remember, the goal isn’t to master the IDP itself, but to deliver products faster. That’s why your documentation should be task-driven. Provide step-by-step templates within your CI/CD pipelines that show -not just tell- developers how to deploy, connect to databases, and integrate other services. The documentation should be a textbook that feels like a playbook, one that developers can run with immediately.

Moreover, set up a DevOps journey that takes a developer from creating a Git project to deploying and running it in production with robust observability. Incorporate direct solutions to common questions such as:

  • How do I create a Git repository?
  • How do I scan my code for quality?
  • How do I deploy my application to Kubernetes?
  • Where do I store my secrets, and how do I use them in my application?
  • How can I create custom alerts?

Each of these questions should lead to a clear, hands-on solution that empowers developers to act immediately and effectively.

Accentuate your documentation with ready-to-go examples and a comprehensive sample application that highlights the platform’s capabilities. In doing so, you’re also creating opportunities for the platform team to dog-food their platform, iterating on their understanding from the user’s perspective.

Ease of Use: The Key to Developer Happiness

If your seasoned developers are constantly referring to documentation for basic tasks, consider this a red flag for your platform’s complexity. Choose tools that blend naturally with their workflow instead of forcing them to conform. Integrated tooling and process automation can greatly reduce friction; this may involve mandating the use of certain services, such as a company’s docker registry, or automating deployment registrations based on organizational standards.

Having a unified view of applications is crucial. Tools like Backstage consolidate information from various services into a user-friendly portal while allowing deep-dives into specific tools, all without the hassle of repeated login prompts.

Support: Expertise and Empathy

Here’s one of the toughest nuts to crack: providing responsive and effective support. Waiting for someone to address a help ticket isn’t just frustrating, it can erode trust in both the IDP and the organization. Real-time help via chat or video calls signals to developers that their issues are taken seriously, fostering a supportive environment.

Creating a community that nurtures peer-to-peer support can relieve some of the pressure from the platform team. This is where stellar documentation comes into play again, as it empowers users to assist each other with references and shared experiences.

As your organization expands, diversifying documentation and support structures may become necessary. Implementing tiered support, with specialist teams positioned between the developers and the platform team, can streamline assistance while maintaining a high standard.

With advancements in AI and machine learning, platforms can offer personalized support, guiding users to solutions sometimes without direct human intervention. This upcoming technology promises to revolutionize support but requires time and experimentation to integrate effectively.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when building and maintaining an Internal Developer Platform, it’s crucial to remember that the platform’s usability often trumps even the most sophisticated technical features.

Thoughtful onboarding mechanisms, such as comprehensive and context-aware documentation, tailored examples, and a step-by-step DevOps journey, can significantly accelerate the time-to-productivity for new developers.

The ease of use is facilitated through intuitive tooling, integration, and automation that minimizes cognitive overhead and streamlined workflows.

Lastly, support, perhaps the most challenging aspect to perfect, hinges on timely and knowledgeable assistance, fostering a community that encourages peer-to-peer problem-solving, and leveraging innovative AI solutions to enhance user experiences.

All these elements stitched together provide a robust and efficient IDP that not only scales with the organization but becomes a central hub for enabling developers to do their best work.