When building a new system, what is the first thing you implement? There are a lot of approaches -- one is to implement a minimal proof of concept. Ho… ...more

As humans, we can become attached to "golden" machines. A very expensive bicycle set up just right, a well-tuned tool, a nicely configured workstation… ...more

Did you ever have the experience going back into a project you have not touched for 6 months -- why did I make this change? Or did you ever struggle t… ...more

Patterns are important. Seeing patterns allows us to simplify things by using common data structures, re-using code/design, finding solutions to commo… ...more

Several days ago, I made a case for using Github to engage users around your OSS project. But is this the hammer you should use to drive every nail? F… ...more

As I was going through my morning routine with our 1.3 year old dog, Reese, who is very energetic, it occurred to me how well short training sessions … ...more

The following quotes from the book "The One-Straw Revolution" caught my eye: The more elaborate the countermeasures, the more complicated the problem… ...more

For the last two days, we have been discussing aspects of several high-quality Yocto BSPs. Another characteristic of these three BSPs is that they are… ...more

Yesterday, we discussed three Yocto BSP layers that are exceptional: meta-tegra (69 contributors) meta-freescale (174 contributors) meta-raspberrypi … ...more

As we evaluate technology to use in our platforms, Yocto Embedded Linux BSPs often come into the mix. Recently we talked with Matt Madison, who mainta… ...more

Planning has its place -- we need a vision for where we are going. But YOUR Platform is best focused on the present, not the future. Because the futur… ...more

The right people in your organization is absolutely essential -- no question about that. And dealing with "people issues" is a critical and essential … ...more

The simplest form of automation is a checklist or playbook. If there is something you need to do more than a couple times that involves multiple steps… ...more

How does your product increase in value after the sale? Software/Firmware/Cloud updates. Software is soft for a reason -- it is meant to be changed, i… ...more

Hack-it, ship-it, forget-it ... is a race to the bottom where cost is the only thing that matters. The initial delivery is what your customer gets -- … ...more

The purpose of YOUR Platform is to reduce friction in delivering value to your customers. We are in business to deliver value to our customers. If we … ...more

What type of culture do platforms thrive in? Where ideas are valued and evaluated on merit and truth. Where initiative is rewarded. Where mistakes res… ...more

We can look at platforms at three levels. Your personal platform is the know-how that you can personally reuse from task-to-task, project-to-project,… ...more

What are the first steps to building YOUR Platform? Ironically, the first step is not some grandiose new Platform vision, but rather to set your house… ...more

Had a nice visit with Rod and he asked me to describe what a Platform is in 20 words or less, so here we go: YOUR Platform is the collection of techno… ...more

In the last post, we discussed the fallacy of using complex technology when the scale does not justify it. But, what if we get a lot more customers, o… ...more

A blog article published 2017 titled You Are Not Google is a good read. This article makes the case that most companies are not operating at the size … ...more

Owning your platform sounds expensive. "We can't afford ops people to manage servers." "Security is scary." "We don't want to manage a database." Howe… ...more

A common objection to investing in a platform is that it is "too expensive." "We want to get it right, lock it down, and then crank out our product an… ...more

If you only build on other people's platforms, how are you different? And if you are not different, what value are you providing? We are not talking d… ...more

This may seem like a contadiction -- how can small companies afford to own and control their Platform? Should not this all be outsourced? "Platforms i… ...more

Control is a scary thing -- because then we are responsible. And if we are responsible, then we can't blame someone else. But if we are not responsibl… ...more

What is control in the context of Your Platform? Control is simply the ability to respond to opportunities and problems. In modern systems we are very… ...more

In today's connected systems, some level of control of your Platform is needed. Security problems needed fixed. Problems needed debugged. Problematic … ...more

Platforms are long games. If you are building a one-off consumer product that will not be maintained, improved, or ever change, then you probably don'… ...more

Platforms are about reuse. Not starting over on every new product. Leveraging what you have done before is one way to scale your efforts. Reuse takes … ...more

The word "simple" in the context of modern systems may seem like an oxymoron. We can't deny that modern systems are complex -- they need to be to do t… ...more

What is the role of simplicity in your platform? Simplicity makes it easier for people to use your platform. Simplicity helps ensure maintainability. … ...more

What is a Platform? There are many ways to look at this. Some might think of AWS, GCP, iOS, Android, etc. These are certainly platforms, but they are … ...more

Constraints are what guide us to good solutions. Software that is simple enough that average developers can actually understand it. A user interface t… ...more

We never have enough time, resources, funding, CPU, storage, etc. However, think what would happen if we had infinite resources. We would never get st… ...more

Product development is hard. Technical debt tends to accrue at a frightening pace. A "Platform" approach helps you reign in the chaos. And provides a … ...more