Platform Engineering and Developer Experience: A Systematic Review of Concepts, Benefits and Future Directions

Platform engineering has been recognized as an important area of focus to deal with the increasing complexity of software development environments. By creating Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) that hide infrastructure complexity and enable self-service, organizations seek to improve developer experience (DevEx) and speed up software delivery. This paper reports a systematic review of the literature on platform engineering, covering its fundamental concepts, connection to developer experience, benefits, challenges of implementation, and future research. Based on recent literature and industry trends, we identify that platform engineering is highly effective in reducing cognitive overload, improving developer productivity, and achieving faster delivery cycles if implemented with a product mindset. Success factors include considering platforms as products, offering golden paths and developer portals, measuring DevEx with a mixed-methods approach, and achieving standardization with flexibility. But organizations are confronted with severe challenges in identifying suitable levels of abstraction, overcoming organizational barriers, and sustaining platform capabilities. Future trends indicate promising areas in observability-centric platforms, AI-infused IDPs, and formal reference models. This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of platform engineering in influencing developer experience for researchers and practitioners.