LFS142x: Introduction to Backstage

Course Description

LFS142x: Introduction to Backstage is an exciting and comprehensive course designed to empower DevOps engineers and professionals working in Developer Productivity or Developer Experience teams. This course dives deep into the world of developer portals, with a specific focus on Backstage, the leading open-source framework for creating developer portals.

In today's cloud-native environment, developers often find themselves juggling multiple microservices, external APIs, libraries, and other software components. This course addresses the challenges of tech fragmentation, knowledge silos, and lack of ownership while promoting creativity and autonomy through the implementation of developer portals like Backstage.

What students will learn

• The benefits and importance of implementing a Developer Portal in an organization
• An in-depth understanding of Backstage and its architecture
• How to map organizational needs to Backstage's offerings
• Setting up and customizing a Backstage Catalog
• Understanding and utilizing Backstage's Scaffolder and TechDocs
• Customizing Backstage with plugins
• Running Backstage locally and in production environments
• Contributing to the Backstage project

Pre-requisites

To maximize your learning experience, you should have:

• Familiarity with source control systems and repositories
• Basic knowledge of GitHub
• Basic understanding of JavaScript, especially React and Node.js
• For Windows users, knowledge of how to install PostgreSQL locally is beneficial

Course Coverage

• Introduction to developer portals and their benefits
• Backstage framework: architecture, features, and components
• Backstage Catalog: setup and customization
• Scaffolder: understanding its functionality and implementation
• TechDocs: leveraging documentation within Backstage
• Plugins: customizing Backstage for specific organizational needs
• Local and production deployment of Backstage
• Mapping organizational requirements to Backstage features
• Contributing to the Backstage open-source project

Who this course is for

• DevOps engineers
• Professionals working in or interested in Developer Productivity teams
• Those involved in Developer Experience teams
• IT professionals looking to streamline development processes
• Organizations seeking to implement efficient developer portals

Real-world Application

Upon completing this course, learners will be equipped to:

• Implement Backstage in their organizations to improve developer productivity
• Reduce technical fragmentation and knowledge silos within development teams
• Enhance collaboration and autonomy among developers
• Streamline the onboarding process for new team members
• Improve documentation and knowledge sharing within development teams
• Customize developer portals to meet specific organizational needs
• Contribute to the growing Backstage open-source community