CNCF-hosted Co-located Events North America 2024

For developers, Backstage is a one-stop shop for all their software development needs. But what goes on behind the scenes to keep this platform humming? This talk delves into the intricacies of maintaining Backstage as a downstream product from the eyes of a platform engineer. Explore challenges like navigating dependency minefields and battling npm issues. Discover strategies for stability, including version pinning and automated updates with Renovate. Learn the art of monitoring and fortifying against security vulnerabilities. Gain insights and tools to conquer backstage maintenance, whether you're a seasoned engineer or a curious bystander. This presentation offers a glimpse into the backstage of Backstage, equipping you with invaluable insights for smooth operations.

Backstage is typically adopted by platform teams to solve engineering problems. Securing extended funding can be challenging if its broader business value is not clearly articulated. We present 2 case studies from the energy and insurance sectors where we have used Backstage to address questions from business stakeholders: Is our tech organization aligned with strategic objectives? Is our information system enabling key initiatives? Can we explain and measure how our tech teams deliver value? By driving the initiative with executive-level sponsors and extending Backstage with "business-oriented" features, we have demonstrated its value beyond an IDP platform. We share learnings from two projects, and demonstrate a set of new features: 1) the augmentation of the (static) System Model with (dynamic) concepts such as initiatives, 2) the design of a flexible measurement framework (for KPIs), and 3) the integration of Enterprise Architecture concepts and their visual representation.

As a Platform Engineer, your team just completed a technical review and decided that your organization needs to adopt Backstage. What do you do on the day one, in the first week and the first month? Do you start by moving all of your applications from your CMDB into the Catalog, or do you sync with your HRIS system to bring Users and Groups first? Even though no two Developer Portal in different organizations look the same, there are a lot of commonalities in the success stories. And the red flags leading up to a humble but unsuccessful adoption are also well known. In this session, we'll explore what does that paved path to Backstage adoption look like in 2024. What are some of the pitfalls to look out for, the challenges to expect for and the mitigation path. What are the different responsibles shared across different platform teams, engineering leaders and team leads. We'll explore both the cultural and the technical side of the adoption and some of the success stories out there.

In todays platform engineering landscape, conventional wisdom suggests that the justification for building and maintaining an internal developer platform (IDP) is closely tied to the size of the engineering team; However, this overlooks critical factors such as platform complexity, integration needs, and the efficiency gains that can be realized even within smaller teams. Smaller teams now have the ability to stand on the shoulder of giants and build on a strong foundation which reduces the overhead and cost for building and maintaining an IDP, regardless of the size of your organization. But how do you begin and what does the path to successful implementation look like? Drawing from our own experiences, we’ll discuss how adopting Backstage has streamlined our development processes, cultivated a self-service culture, and enabled us to manage the complexities inherent in platform development.

In 1914, Booz Allen Hamilton pioneered the field of management consulting. Today, we are trusted as the largest provider of AI to the federal government. Our goal is to provide technically differentiated solutions that solve complex client problems at scale, and to do that, we are championing a culture of internal reuse. This includes applying InnerSource principles, through a Backstage developer portal, to improve velocity, quality, and DevEx for a technical workforce of 14,000. InnerSource principles of transparency and self-service can be at odds with corporate hierarchy, program silos due to varied client contracts, and the “need to know” mindset required when handling classified information. To get the best of both worlds, our Backstage team has learned to lean into that tension and deploy change management techniques to build community and rally support for new ways of working. This session will explore corporate barriers to Backstage adoption and lessons learned along the way.