Camille FournierPlatform Engineering: A Guide for Technical, Product, and People Leaders

I first became familiar with Camille's work through The Manager's Path., which has been an invaluable reference throughout my career as an Engineering Manager. It's a book I find myself returning to repeatedly for guidance and inspiration.Platform Engineering by Ian and Camille is about to become another essential resource for me. This book dives deeply into the nuances of building trusted platforms, covering everything from managing stakeholders to planning, operating, and evolving platforms. The level of detail and practical advice is excellent.One of my favorite chapters explores adopting a product-focused approach to platform building. This perspective strongly resonated with me, as it mirrored successful platform strategies I’ve observed in my own experience working within engineering organizations. Also, the chapter on "Rearchitecting vs. Building a v2" offered great insights into the hidden costs of migrations and emphasized the value of iterative modernization for existing platforms.This book is a must-read for anyone involved in platform development or engineering leadership.

The book's accessible and clear writing style makes it relevant for readers from all backgrounds.Having led a large platform team myself, I found the content both relatable and an invaluable reference. In particular, the insights on stakeholder management in complex organizations are both practical and immediately actionable.For those stepping into similar roles, I recommend sharing this book with your leadership team. It provides valuable perspective on upcoming challenges and effective strategies to address them.Highly recommended reading for technology leaders.

Camille and Ian created a valuable reference that covers many of the Why's, What's, and How's of Platform Engineering. However, the utility of this book is much broader in scope than that, and many of the topics discussed will feel familiar to all who work in large technical organizations, even if they aren't creating a "platform". I expect that I'll end up buying multiples of this book, to help folks facing common challenges.