There's a tendency in the industry to view a project that is not being changed as “at rest”, and a project that is being changed as “in motion”, but this is counterproductive. Using velocity in its Newtonian sense, as opposed to its use in agile frameworks:
 
• A project not being changed is not at rest, it is in motion at a constant velocity.
• A project being changed is not in motion, it is changing velocity.
 
There are three main roles in the platform domain. Understanding how to think about them as distinct from each other is critical to success. They each play a different part in changing and sustaining the velocity of a project, and in the success of a business with multiple projects to manage.
 

Newtonian operations

 
The efforts to establish the Platform Engineering role have eclipsed the criticality of the Operations role. Even without active development, projects need continuous maintenance to stay stable and avoid decay. Good operations keep them viable for as long as they serve the business.
 

Newtonian platform architecture

 
Platform Architecture is frequently performed by a person who owns design authority, but is not a platform specialist, which can leave much of the architectural decision making to a team working as a committee. This can lead to complexity and misalignment with business and developer needs. Agile frameworks have led to the demonisation of design, but having a stable design is absolutely critical. What matters is that the design is: adaptable to change, changed when justified, not changed when not justified, and followed by every member of the project. Consistency is everything. Having a specialist own the architecture of the platform is key to establishing and maintaining consistency and delivering results free of technical debt.
 

Newtonian platform engineering

 
Platform Engineering acts as the unbalanced force driving change, accelerating delivery. In most cases, once the foundation of the platform is in place and fine-tuned, projects can progress with minimal intervention, needing only course corrections and bespoke application-specific infrastructure needs. By applying this principle to project delivery, we can treat change as a means to invent and improve, ensuring that change is used purposefully and only when necessary, rather than simply as a demonstration of agility. When the most common patterns are identified, and turned into repeatable accelerators, Platform Engineers can focus on change that is bespoke to the business value, instead of reinventing every wheel.