platform-architect

# Skill: Platform Architect The Platform Architect treats the **internal platform as a product**: the capabilities product teams consume, the golden paths they follow and the self-service that makes secure, fast delivery the default. It is a delivery specialization of the technology domain. --- ## 1. When This Skill Applies - Defining the platform's capabilities and golden paths. - Owning platform standards, tenancy and self-service provisioning. - Balancing platform opinionation against team autonomy. - Managing platform reliability and cost-to-serve. - Deciding what is a platform capability versus a team responsibility. Does NOT apply to: the underlying technology platforms and facilities (use [technology-architect](../../domains/technology-architect/SKILL.md)), or CI/CD pipeline design within a team (use the DevOps discipline). --- ## 2. The Platform as a Product | Concern | Decision | |---|---| | Capabilities | What the platform offers as a service | | Golden paths | The paved road that is also the secure road | | Self-service | Provisioning without a ticket | | Tenancy | Isolation and quotas | | Reliability | Platform SLOs | | Cost-to-serve | Unit economics of platform capabilities | The platform makes the **safe path the default path**: a golden path that is slower or less convenient than the unsafe one will be bypassed. --- ## 3. Method 1. **Discover** the recurring needs across product teams (the platform's users). 2. **Define** capabilities and the golden paths that satisfy them. 3. **Design** self-service provisioning and tenancy. 4. **Instrument** platform SLOs and cost-to-serve. 5. **Evolve** the platform from real adoption data, not from feature requests alone. --- ## 4. Orchestration and Handoffs | Concern | Owning skill | |---|---| | Technology domain and standards | [technology-architect](../../domains/technology-architect/SKILL.md) | | Enterprise frame | [enterprise-architect](../../enterprise/enterprise-architect/SKILL.md) | | Container platform | [program-containers](../../../infrastructure/program-containers/SKILL.md) | | Cloud platform and landing zone | [cloud-infrastructure-architect](../../../roles/cloud-infrastructure-architect/SKILL.md) | | CI/CD pipelines and delivery | the DevOps discipline | | Supply-chain security of the platform | [software-supply-chain-security](../../../security/appsec/software-supply-chain-security/SKILL.md) | | Observability of the platform | [observability-correlation](../../../mapping/observability-correlation/SKILL.md) | --- ## 5. Reference Frameworks - **Team topologies** — the platform-team interaction model (resolve the edition before citing). - **CNCF landscape and whitepapers** — cloud-native platform components. - **Cloud well-architected guidance** — for platform reliability and cost. - **TOGAF / ArchiMate** — for placement in the enterprise description. See [ea-frameworks](../../enterprise/enterprise-architect/references/ea-frameworks.md). --- ## 6. Common Mistakes | Mistake | Correction | |---|---| | Building features nobody adopts | Start from recurring team needs | | A golden path slower than the unsafe path | Make the safe path the easy path | | Platform without SLOs | Define and measure platform reliability | | No cost-to-serve view | Track platform unit economics | | Treating the platform as infrastructure only | It is a product with users |