Platform Engineering Course Guide 🚀

Mastering Platform Engineering: From Golden Paths to Selling Your MVP

Platform engineering is no longer a buzzword: it’s a proven practice that bridges the gap between developers and operations by building Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs). As Gartner predicts, by 2026, 80% of large software engineering organisations will establish platform engineering teams as internal providers of reusable services, components, and tools for application delivery.

The Platform Engineering Certified Practitioner course equips engineers, architects, and technology leaders with the knowledge and hands-on frameworks to design, build, and scale successful platforms inside their organisations.

Why This Course Matters

Modern DevOps setups often struggle with:

• High cognitive load for developers
• Long waiting times for infrastructure
• Low productivity and shadow operations
• Lack of standardisation and automation

Platform engineering addresses these pain points by creating golden paths, standardising infrastructure, and enabling self-service, while treating the platform as a product (CNCF Maturity Model).

By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

• Build an Internal Developer Platform from scratch
• Apply best practices such as abstraction layers, golden paths, and everything-as-code
• Launch a Minimum Viable Platform (MVP) in weeks, not years
• Secure buy-in from executives and stakeholders by selling your MVP

Inside the Course: Module Highlights

1. Introduction to Platform Engineering

Understand the evolution from DevOps to platform engineering, the importance of treating platforms as products, and how IDPs enable “true DevOps”.

2. Building an Internal Developer Platform

Explore platform team composition, maturity models, and reference architectures for multi-cloud environments. Learn why platforms should start from the backend, not the portal.

3. Platform Tooling 101

Dive into the five planes of platform architecture: developer control, integration and delivery, resource, monitoring and logging, and security. Get hands-on with frameworks such as CNOE and Pocket IDP.

4. The Art of Building Golden Paths

Learn how to design end-to-end developer workflows that reduce cognitive load, waiting times, and ticket operations. Golden paths automate manual tasks and embed security by design.

5. Finding the Right Abstractions

Discover how frontend (portals, declarative configs) and backend (orchestrators, infrastructure as code) abstractions balance usability with flexibility. Avoid golden cages by shielding complexity without removing context.

6. Infrastructure Platform Engineering

Deep dive into infrastructure orchestration, vending machine-style provisioning, and applying “everything as code” for scalable platforms.

7. How to Build Your Minimum Viable Platform (MVP)

Practical framework for building an MVP in 8 weeks. Learn to measure onboarding time, service creation time, and complexity reduction as success metrics.

8. How to Sell Your MVP to Stakeholders

Winning stakeholder buy-in is crucial. This module shows how to frame value for:

• Developers: self-service, golden paths
• I&O teams: standardisation, cost reduction
• Security: guardrails, automation
• Executives: ROI, business case

Who Should Take This Course?

• Platform Engineers: Build advanced knowledge and frameworks to succeed in your role.
• DevOps & SREs: Learn how to evolve from fragmented toolchains to structured platforms.
• Engineering Leaders & Architects: Understand how to fund, scale, and secure stakeholder buy-in for your platform initiative.

Certification and Beyond

The course concludes with a certification exam (60 minutes, multiple choice, two attempts). Passing it validates you as a Platform Engineering Certified Practitioner: a credential increasingly in demand as organisations scale their digital capabilities.

Graduates are also invited to join the community, attend PlatformCon, and continue their journey into the Certified Professional track.

Recap and Next Steps

The Platform Engineering Certified Practitioner course is more than theory: it’s a playbook for real-world platform success. Whether you’re just starting with platform engineering or looking to scale your MVP into a production-ready platform, this programme will give you the tools, frameworks, and credibility to make it happen.

👉 Ready to shape the future of software delivery? Start your journey with the Platform Engineering Certified Practitioner course today.