[AG.DEP.8] Implement a unified developer portal for self-service environment management

Category: OPTIONAL

Consider implementing a self-service portal that empowers developers to create, manage, and decommission their own isolated development or sandbox environments, within the established boundaries set by the platform team. While fostering autonomy for development teams, this approach accelerates the development process and reduces the operational load on the supporting platform team. To ensure adherence to the organization's standards and ensure consistency, the portal could include predefined environment templates and resource bundles.

While beneficial, the implementation of a developer portal is optional, particularly if the organization is leveraging codified environment vending as recommended. Infrastructure as code (IaC) presents an alternative approach that reduces human intervention.

The self-service portal, if implemented, can adopt the X as a Service (XaaS) interaction model as outlined in the Team Topologies book by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. The portal can evolve over time into a central resource for common, reusable tools and capabilities preconfigured to comply with organizational standards, facilitating streamlined automated governance activities. This might include centralized access to common tools into a unified developer portal, including observability, security, quality, cost, and organizational use cases. If adopted by many teams, this platform can become an excellent method for communicating changes within the organization.

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