What should we tackle first: PR latency, CI, or environments?

Measure first, but 8 out of 10 times PR-first-review latency is the biggest lever because it compounds everything else. Fix ownership with CODEOWNERS and SLAs, then cut CI queue time. Preview environments usually land next.

How do we avoid metric theater and surveillance vibes?

Only track metrics teams can act on in the next sprint, publish them publicly, and pair every graph with a documented action. No individual leaderboards. Focus on system waits and hand-offs, not keystrokes or time-at-keyboard.

Won’t paved-road defaults slow down our experts?

Done right, the paved road includes escape hatches via RFCs and overrides. The trick is making the default path so good that most teams choose it voluntarily. Keep the surface small and the docs excellent.

Do we need Backstage to do this?

No, but it helps. You can start with a Git template repo and a Makefile standard. Backstage becomes valuable when you want a catalog and self-service templates in one place.

How do we bring security/compliance along?

Shift-left with OPA/Conftest and scanners (Trivy/Snyk) in CI, paired with clear messages and remediation. Map policies to tickets and audits. When security sees fewer production surprises, they become your champions.

Platform-productivity · Oct 2, 2025 · 9 minute read

Stop Paying the Wait Tax: Measure Dev Friction and Kill Hand‑Offs with a Paved Road

If your engineers spend more time waiting than shipping, you don’t have a talent problem—you have a platform problem. Instrument the friction, fix the top waits, and give teams a paved road.

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Stop Paying the Wait Tax: Measure Dev Friction and Kill Hand‑Offs with a Paved Road

Key takeaways

Implementation checklist