Why Backstage and not build our own?

Because you don’t get points for building a UI framework. Backstage gives you a well‑trodden scaffolder and catalog. Keep it minimal, resist plugin sprawl, and invest where it matters: your templates and guardrails.

How do we handle teams that need exceptions?

Publish an escape hatch with risk sign‑off and time‑boxed exceptions. Require an issue with owner, rationale, and a plan to rejoin the paved road. Make it easier to return than to stay bespoke.

What about non‑Kubernetes shops?

Swap ArgoCD/Helm for your deploy primitive (e.g., ECS with GitHub Actions, Spinnaker, Octopus). The pattern stays: PR‑driven infra, a single deployment path, and templates that encode guardrails.

Won’t this slow down innovation?

The opposite. Constraints reduce cognitive load. Teams move faster when the happy path is one click. Innovation happens at the edge of the paved road, not in reinventing CI or IAM every sprint.

How do we keep the portal from becoming a ticket machine?

Make every workflow idempotent and PR‑based. If a click can’t produce a commit, it’s not self‑service. Kill any flow that needs manual hand‑offs.

Platform-productivity · Oct 24, 2025 · 10 minute read

Internal Developer Portals That Actually Ship: Paved Roads, Not Pet Projects

Stop building bespoke portals nobody uses. Ship a paved road with self‑service that cuts lead time and keeps you out of plugin hell.

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Internal Developer Portals That Actually Ship: Paved Roads, Not Pet Projects

Key takeaways

Implementation checklist