To K8S and Beyond – Maturing Your Platform Engineering Initiative

CNCF Platform maturity model

Entire matrix is available from CNCF

Levels (from tactical to strategic)
- Provisional
- Operational
- Scalable
- Optimizing
Dimensions:
- Investment: How are funds/staff allocated to platform capabilities
- Adoption: How and why do users discover this platform
- Interfaces: How do users interact with and consume platform capabilities
- Operations: How are platforms and capabilities planned, prioritized, developed and maintained
- Measurement: What is the process for gathering and incorporating feedback/learning?

Understand
- Outcomes & Practices
- Where are you at
- Limits & Opportunities
- Behaviors and outcome
Balance People and processes

Bad: I want to improve my k8s platform
Good: Scaling an enterprise COE (Center Of Excellence)
- What: Onboard 20 Teams within 20 Months and enforce 8 security regulations
- Where: We have a dedicated team of centrally funded people
- Lay the foundation: More funding for more, larger teams -> Switch from Project to platform mindset
- Do your technical Due diligence in parallel

Know what your ultimate goals and constraints are
Know your landscape
Plan in baby steps and iterate
- Lay the foundation for building the right thing and not just anything
- Don’t forget to do your technical dd in parallel