Platform Engineering Fundamentals

A book-shaped table of contents for platform engineering fundamentals: evolution and organizational foundations, platform-as-a-product thinking, core principles (self-service, golden paths, automation, APIs), design principles, the platform lifecycle, DORA/SPACE metrics, anti-patterns, enterprise governance, and MAANG interview prep — cross-linking existing sre/patterns/observability/projects notes instead of duplicating them.

1 — Ticket-Driven Platforms

Why routing every platform request through a ticket queue defeats the self-service premise a platform is supposed to deliver.

2 — Platform as an Operations Team

Why a platform team that only reacts to operational tickets has become an ops team wearing a platform label.

4 — Excessive Standardization

Why over-standardizing every workflow trades away the flexibility teams need to ship.

5 — Platform Monoliths

Why an unbounded, tightly-coupled platform becomes as hard to change as the monolith it replaced.