Within the grand scheme of software program improvement, platform engineering is a comparatively new self-discipline. As such, platform engineering groups are nonetheless determining finest practices and messing up alongside the way in which.

In a chat at PlatformCon 2025 final week, Camille Fournier, CTO of Open Athena and co-author (alongside Ian Nowland) of the guide “Platform Engineering: A Information for Technical, Product, and Folks Leaders,” explored frequent errors she sees groups making and provides recommendation on the right way to keep away from them.

“We expect that platform engineering is the following logical evolution that’s wanted by the expertise trade to essentially deal with loads of the underlying complexity that we’re seeing at the moment, particularly in giant expertise organizations,” she stated. “We expect this can be a essential subject, however we additionally suppose it’s a really exhausting factor to do. We’ve seen lots of people try to wrestle to construct out profitable platform groups, and so we wrote this guide as an try to assist individuals who have been battling platform engineering to do a greater job.”

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A typical mistake individuals make isn’t placing the precise individuals on the group, similar to solely together with software program engineers or solely together with operations. Platform engineering groups want a mixture of individuals with totally different expertise, together with software program engineers, DevOps, SREs, infrastructure engineers, and techniques engineers.

Software program engineering is a core a part of platform engineering, since you want to have the ability to write significant software program to be able to handle complexity. “Past automation and past operations — each of that are extraordinarily necessary — you wish to be keen to construct new software program merchandise,” Fournier stated. “You wish to be keen to construct self-service interfaces and enhanced APIs and safety and high quality guardrails, however you want software program engineers on these groups if you happen to’re going to essentially be capable of create the type of complexity discount that issues.”

However, in case your platform group is simply software program engineers, that introduces a complete different set of issues. Software program engineers could not wish to take into consideration operations. They wish to construct frameworks, they wish to construct a library, they wish to construct a blueprint, she defined. 

“There is no such thing as a lasting worth if you happen to don’t have operational possession … If you wish to have a platform group that’s not going to get defunded, you higher be working some issues that folks truly depend upon … You’ll construct higher software program if you happen to run it and preserve it in manufacturing. However the massive value of that is upkeep, it’s operations, it’s upgrades. You want individuals with these system expertise.”

Not having a product method is one other mistake platform groups make, as this results in constructing in options that customers aren’t truly utilizing. Platform groups have to be working with their finish customers to know how they may use the platform.

“You’ve acquired to have that buyer empathy in your platform group that truly cares in regards to the individuals which might be going to make use of this software program and will get their enter on what you’re constructing, so that you simply’re constructing one thing that truly meets their wants and calls for, and never simply what you suppose is correct,” she stated.  

There are two main failure factors generally seen when constructing the platform, Fournier identified. One is that the platform group builds what they suppose their customers want, and the other downside is listening an excessive amount of to customers and implementing each single characteristic they want. 

“If you find yourself on this characteristic manufacturing facility, you find yourself constructing these form of Rube Goldberg architectures that themselves create the identical issues that you simply acquired within the first place,” Fournier stated. “After you have a Rube Goldberg structure, it’s exhausting to construct one thing that your clients can extra simply plug into and use. It’s exhausting to evolve. You grow to be increasingly of a bottleneck.”

In accordance with Fournier, if you happen to can mix software program engineering expertise, operational expertise, and a product focus, that’s an amazing baseline for constructing out a platform group. 

One other main mistake is constructing a v2. What she means by that is that generally platform groups will discover themselves in a state of affairs the place they have already got a system, however they will’t actually incrementally change it, so that they go and construct a completely new system. 

Issues come up as a result of regardless of the way you suppose customers are utilizing your system, you may’t actually know for positive. Odds are, there’s some group or particular person counting on some a part of it, and transferring on to one thing else will end in reliability points. Due to this fact, constructing a V2 is a excessive danger operation.

One other method wherein it’s a excessive danger operation will depend on the way in which your group is ready up. She referred to Simon Wardley’s pioneers, settlers, and city planners idea. The pioneers are those doing actually modern work, who’re snug with danger. 

“They discover one thing which may work, after which if they’re profitable, they’re adopted by people who find themselves extra like settlers who’re snug with some ambiguity, they usually wish to type of take one thing that’s messy and clear it up and make it a bit of bit extra secure and scalable, after which over time you get the actual city planners who wish to make this method actually environment friendly and are very snug on this form of giant system that has numerous totally different trade-offs for effectivity and progress.”

A V2 of a undertaking is often began by a pioneer, however platform groups are normally not made up of pioneers; profitable platform groups sometimes include settlers and city planners. 

Even when a platform group managed to consider a brand new modern factor, there’s the difficulty of migrations. Fournier stated there’s truly a giant alternative for platform engineering groups to determine methods to make migrations much less painful. 

“If everyone on this room takes away one factor, suppose very exhausting about how one can make migrations a lot simpler in your clients,” she stated. 

1. Overlooking Excessive-Site visitors Areas

Why Excessive-Site visitors Areas Matter

2. Ignoring Blind Spots

Tricks to Decrease Blind Spots

3. Putting Cameras Too Excessive or Too Low

Optimum Digicam Peak

4. Ignoring Lighting Situations

Bettering Lighting for Higher Footage

5. Overlooking Indoor Protection

Key Indoor Digicam Places

6. Not Securing the Cameras

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7. Forgetting About Community Safety

Enhancing Community Safety

8. Neglecting Common Upkeep

Upkeep Ideas

Conclusion

Facepalm: Like many electrical autos, Teslas characteristic absolutely electrical doorways with emergency handbook launch mechanisms in case the automotive loses energy. Nonetheless, sufficient homeowners discover Tesla’s handbook door openers insufficiently accessible {that a} marketplace for customized escape latches has emerged.

Quite a few lethal incidents have occurred during which Tesla drivers and passengers have been trapped inside their autos following a crash or hearth. In lots of circumstances, survivors have been rescued solely after bystanders or first responders broke the home windows, as energy loss had rendered the doorways inoperable.

In consequence, cautious Tesla homeowners have turned to varied DIY options to make the autos’ emergency launch techniques simpler to entry or extra seen. These modifications have turn into so fashionable that some corporations now mass-produce and promote them, highlighting a widespread concern over the accessibility of Tesla’s emergency exits.

Electrical autos typically use buttons to function doorways through electrical motors, maintaining the handles flush with the physique. Though eliminating analog door handles will increase the danger of being locked in or out of the automobile, a number of producers have instructed Client Stories that the design gives a number of benefits.

Flush, motorized door handles enhance aerodynamics and scale back weight, which boosts total efficiency. Moreover, digital security techniques can robotically open doorways after a crash or stop them from opening into the trail of oncoming objects. Nonetheless, customers might battle to open the doorways as a result of software program glitches or unfamiliarity with the expertise.

Many Tesla homeowners additionally complain that the emergency latches are too properly hidden. Whereas areas range by mannequin, customers can seek the advice of the proprietor’s handbook for steering. As an example, the Mannequin Y’s entrance door launch mechanism is positioned beneath an unmarked tab in entrance of the driver-side window switches. The rear door latches are much more obscure, tucked behind a small entry door beneath the mat on the backside of the door pocket.

Homeowners typically deal with the difficulty by tying ripcords to the handbook launch handles, generally attaching clearly marked eject tabs for visibility. One firm, EV Dynamics, sells a cable with Velcro and snap-on attachments for $22.

In distinction, another autos with electrical doorways supply extra intuitive emergency launch techniques. For instance, fashions from Audi, Ford, Fisker, and others enable the doorways to open when customers pull the handles forcefully or pull them twice.

Coming into a automobile with absolutely electrical doorways may turn into troublesome if the automotive loses energy or the handles freeze. Producers differ in how they deal with this drawback. Some embody conventional handbook keys, whereas Tesla advises homeowners to make use of the cell app to pressure the deal with open.