Identifying and onboarding app 1

Overview #

Selecting the first application to test your MVP and engaging with the corresponding application team are critical decisions in your platform engineering process. Carefully review the following recommendations before initiating contact with any team. If you have questions, consult your Humanitec team for clarification.

Setting expectations #

What does “onboard app 1” actually mean? It doesn’t imply the development team has decided to switch to your platform fully. They lack sufficient information, and your platform isn’t fully ready yet.

In concrete terms, it means they are open to testing the development of one of their services or applications on your platform. The setup will use their real container, but the infrastructure will only mimic their actual environment.

How to get buy-In from developers for testing #

Don’t overestimate your abilities — you need proper training to deliver platform demos. First, create a long list of potential app teams to approach in the “App Onboarding Forceranking” sheet within your MVP folder “App Onboarding.” At this stage, do not engage with the teams.

Criteria for selecting teams #

• Representative application: The app should represent other apps, showing developers that your platform can support their other services.
• Manageable Scope: Limit the test to 1-3 services with 4-10 dependencies.
• Containerized: The app should already be containerized, ideally on Kubernetes, as you won’t have time to handle containerization.

Approaching teams #

Once you’ve identified 1-3 suitable teams, reach out with this message:

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Subject: Internal Developer Platform Testing Opportunity

Message:

Hi TEAM,

We're building a modern Internal Developer Platform aimed at reducing wait times and enabling PR environments. Would you be interested in testing it using one of your services or a test service? This won't require your time or impact your current services or infrastructure.

We'll handle all setup and onboarding with dummy infrastructure.

Once everything's ready, we'll provide a demo and instructions for you to test. If the trial is successful, you can decide whether to fully onboard. Here's a demo video showing the target state. Let us know if you have any questions!

Best regards,  
Your Platform Team

This approach keeps the initial ask low-effort for the team, and outlines the process clearly.

How to choose the right service/app #

Here’s a force-ranked approach to selecting the right service for testing:

1. Best case: Ask the development team if they have a dummy app used for testing new things.

2. Second option: Inquire if they’re starting a new service and offer to set it up as a test.

3. Third option: Request 1-3 independent services that are representative of their broader architecture.

Once the app is selected:

Ask the development team for the following materials:

• Helm charts (if available)
• Terraform files (if available)
• Pipelines (if available)
• Network diagrams (if available)
• Other relevant documentation

Upload these materials to the MVP folder “Application Onboarding” and share them with your Humanitec architect. They will use the automated onboarding service to create the necessary Score files.

Prepare the platform for the test app #

1. Check all external dependencies the test app requires and ensure you have the resource definitions ready.

2. Run humctl deploy to test your setup end-to-end and verify the mimicked development environment.

Prepare for the developer test #

Training: Do not overestimate your readiness — practice the demo thoroughly and dry run the test day.

Running the developer test #

1. Begin with a presentation and then demo the platform using their selected app.
2. Provide access to the platform and let them run the developer tutorial independently.

Collect feedback and secure buy-in #

Let them know you’ll now build the production-grade version and consider them for onboarding. Inform them that the onboarding process would require 1 hour per day from a developer for 1-2 weeks, but should take no more than a day.

Ask: “Would you be open to testing this flow in your actual development environment and, if successful, switching to the platform entirely?” If they hesitate, ask: “What would you need to see to make this switch?”

Once buy-in is secured, proceed with the Production Readiness Program.