Platform engineering teams are on the rise, with 94% of respondents to Puppet by Perforce’s 2023 State of DevOps report saying that platform engineering is helping them realize the benefits of DevOps more than before.

According to the company, platform engineering is the practice of “designing and building self-service capabilities to minimize cognitive load for developers and to enable fast flow software delivery.”

When implemented properly, platform engineering benefits the whole organization, not just development and IT teams. 

About 68% of respondents said that they’ve seen an increase in development velocity since adopting this practice. Forty-two percent said that speed has increased “a great deal.”

Other benefits companies with platform engineering teams are seeing include improved system reliability (60%), greater productivity (59%), and better workflow standards (57%). 

Top priorities for platform engineering teams also align with product management responsibilities. These include increasing awareness of platform capabilities (47% of respondents), setting realistic expectations of the role of the platform team within the company (44%), and following industry trends and keeping up with feature requirements (37%). 

In an economy when layoffs are becoming increasingly common, those with platform engineering experience might have an edge. According to the report, 71% of respondents said their companies plan to hire someone with that qualification over the next 12 months and 53% will do so within the next six months.