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A Living Blueprint: Evolving the Platform Engineering Whitepaper and Maturity Model

By Corey McGalliard & Juho Syrjänen |

A Living Blueprint: Evolving the Platform Engineering Whitepaper and Maturity Model

In Q1 2026, the CNCF Platform Engineering Technical Community Group (TCG) kicked off a refresh of two foundational community resources: the Platform as a Product Whitepaper and the Platform Engineering Maturity Model. Since their initial release, both of these documents have been crucial guidance for organisations beginning their internal developer platform journey, and now, two years later, it’s time to ensure they grow with the industry.

We launched two focused initiatives to not only make initial updates but also to define a clear, sustainable path forward. We believe these should be living documents that continuously reflect industry advancements, spawn new ideas, and serve as a durable, long-term resource for the community.

Our current initiative focuses on two main areas to meet the immediate needs of the platform engineering community and pave the way for the future. First, we are Defining Future Growth and Scope by leading a discussion to clearly articulate how both the Whitepaper and Maturity Model must evolve to meet the current and emerging needs of the cloud-native industry. This ensures a measured, strategic approach to larger future changes and includes integrating content on new essential areas, notably the secure, governed integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and prototypes into the software development lifecycle.

Second, we are pursuing Clarity and Usability Improvements through Language and Terminology Refinement, making concise, simple changes to update the core language across both documents, ensuring clarity and aligning them with established vocabulary. We are also focusing on Maturity Model Practicality by adding clearer, real-world examples and scenarios. This enhancement will empower teams to assess their current state more effectively and identify concrete next steps for advancement.

The collective goal of these initiatives is to have drafts of the Whitepaper and the Maturity Model available before KubeCon EU 2026, for formal release to the community at KubeCon! Accompanied by a feedback survey, this will provide an immediate opportunity for review, feedback, and further community contributions to steer future initiative work through 2026 and into 2027.

Get Involved Now: Your Expertise Is the Blueprint!

The success of these documents and their evolution depends on the collective expertise of the cloud-native community. We invite you to join the conversation, contribute your experience, and help us finalise this next iteration.

Connect With Us Online

  • Slack: Join the #platform-engineering channel on CNCF Slack. It’s the best place to ask questions, share ideas, get involved, and stay up to date on progress. A link to the drafts will be published in the channel as soon as they’re ready, and formally at Platform Engineering Day on Monday 23rd March 2026.
  • Website: Visit cloudnativeplatforms.com to learn more about our group and resources. The draft documents and survey will be available there.
  • LinkedIn: Follow our latest posts and updates on LinkedIn.
  • Survey: We’re launching a new version of our community survey at KubeCon Europe 2026! Your input will directly inform the final shape of the updated materials — keep an eye on the channels above for the link.

Meet Us at KubeCon EU

If you’re attending KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam, find us! We’ll be hosting Platform Engineering Coffee meet-ups Monday-Thursday 07:00-8.30, lunchtime meet-ups 12:30-13:30, at Platform Engineering day all day Monday 23rd March. Or stop by the Platform Engineering TCG booth at the Project Pavilion on Wednesday, 25th March to chat with contributors, ask questions about the updated documents, and share your own platform engineering stories. Whether you’re just starting your platform journey or you’ve been building internal developer platforms for years, we’d love to hear from you.

We look forward to building the next chapter of these resources together.