About this Video

• Video Title: Shift down: A practical guide to platform engineering - Leah Rivers & James Brookbank
• Channel: Platform Engineering
• Speakers: Leah Rivers, James Brookbank
• Duration: 00:56:35

Introduction

This video presents a practical guide to platform engineering, focusing on the "shift down" strategy. The speakers, Leah Rivers and James Brookbank from Google, discuss challenges with traditional "shift left" approaches and propose a solution that prioritizes maximizing value with existing resources while addressing recurring business problems related to software development at scale. They introduce a framework to help teams navigate these challenges effectively.

Key Takeaways

1. Shift Down Strategy: A platform engineering strategy aimed at systematically eliminating developer responsibilities and building them into the platform, freeing up capacity for feature development and improving control over quality attributes.
2. Quality Attributes as Architectural Features: Focusing on quality attributes (performance, reliability, security, etc.) as integral parts of the architecture, not merely add-ons. These attributes are closely tied to business risk and are central to platform engineering.
3. Abstractions and Coupling: Using abstractions (reusable components, APIs, etc.) and managing coupling (interconnections, dependencies, policies) are key tools in platform ecosystem design. Shared fate is a design principle that leverages economies of scale, but requires managing the risk of a "tragedy of the commons."
4. Ecosystem Types (Type 2-4): A model categorizes different ecosystem types based on shared responsibility and control over quality attributes, guiding decisions on the appropriate level of platform intervention. Type 2 (you build it, you run it), Type 3 (you build it, we help you run it), and Type 4 (you build it, we run it) represent increasing levels of platform responsibility.
5. Clemick's Frontiers: A concept illustrating the trade-off between efficiency gained through tight coupling and the retargetability/reusability of the platform for new business models. This emphasizes the need for continuous improvement and adaptation.

Based solely on the provided transcript, the difference between "shift left" and "shift down" in platform engineering is as follows:

Shift Left: Focuses on moving more capabilities into the hands of developers earlier in the software development lifecycle. This increases developer responsibility and can lead to overload and increased complexity at scale.

Shift Down: Aims to systematically remove responsibilities from developers and build them into the platform itself. This frees up developer capacity for feature development and allows for better control over quality attributes. Essentially, shift down is presented as a solution to the problems created by the scaling challenges of shift left.