Fawkes Project Charter

Project Name

Fawkes - An Open Source Internal Delivery Platform

Vision

To become the leading open-source Internal Delivery Platform that empowers organizations to achieve elite DORA performance while fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement in platform engineering.

Mission

Provide a production-ready, comprehensive Internal Delivery Platform that:

Enables rapid, secure software delivery through automation and best practices
Makes DORA metrics a first-class citizen with automated collection and visualization
Integrates learning and skill development through a dojo-style curriculum
Supports multi-cloud infrastructure with GitOps and Infrastructure as Code
Prioritizes security through DevSecOps practices and zero-trust principles
Creates an exceptional developer experience that reduces cognitive load

Problem Statement

Organizations struggle to build effective Internal Developer Platforms due to:

Complexity: Platform engineering requires expertise across dozens of tools and practices
Integration Challenges: Stitching together CI/CD, observability, security, and deployment tools is time-consuming
Metrics Blind Spots: Teams lack visibility into DORA metrics and platform effectiveness
Skills Gap: Platform engineering skills are scarce; teams need learning resources integrated with tools
Reinventing the Wheel: Every organization builds similar platforms, duplicating effort
Vendor Lock-in: Commercial platforms create dependencies and limit customization

Solution

Fawkes provides an opinionated, integrated platform that includes:

Core Platform Capabilities:

Kubernetes-based infrastructure provisioning (AWS, Azure, GCP)
GitOps workflows for declarative infrastructure and application management
CI/CD pipelines with golden path templates
Automated security scanning and compliance checks
Comprehensive observability stack (metrics, logs, traces)
Developer portal (Backstage) for self-service and discovery
Deployment strategies (blue-green, canary, progressive delivery)

Differentiators:

DORA Metrics Automation: Automated collection and visualization of all four key metrics
Dojo Learning Curriculum: Integrated learning paths aligned with platform capabilities
Certification Integration: Aligned with Platform Engineering University certifications
Open Source & Extensible: No vendor lock-in, community-driven development
Security-First: Comprehensive scanning, policy-as-code, zero-trust roadmap
Multi-Cloud Native: Designed for multi-cloud from the start

Target Audience

Primary Users

Platform Engineering Teams (5-50 people) in mid to large enterprises
DevOps Teams transitioning to platform engineering model
Engineering Leaders seeking to improve DORA metrics and developer productivity

Secondary Users

Application Developers who benefit from the platform's self-service capabilities
Platform Engineering Students learning through hands-on implementation
DevOps Consultants implementing IDPs for clients

Geographic Focus

Initial: North America, Europe (English language)
Expansion: Global (internationalization in roadmap)

Success Criteria

6-Month Goals (Post-MVP)

Adoption: 15-25 organizations using Fawkes in production
Community: 50+ contributors, 1,000+ GitHub stars
DORA Impact: 3+ published case studies showing measurable DORA improvement
Learning: 100+ individuals complete at least one dojo module
Stability: 99.5%+ platform uptime for core components

12-Month Goals

Adoption: 50+ organizations, 10+ Fortune 1000 companies
Community: 100+ contributors, 2,500+ GitHub stars, CNCF Sandbox project
Certification: Official partnership with Platform Engineering University
Multi-Cloud: Full support for AWS, Azure, GCP
Revenue: Sustainable funding model (sponsorships, professional services)

24-Month Goals

Market Position: Top 3 open-source IDP by adoption
Community: 250+ contributors, 5,000+ GitHub stars, CNCF Incubating project
Ecosystem: 20+ plugins/extensions from community
Enterprise: 100+ enterprise deployments with reference architectures
Research: Published research on IDP adoption and DORA correlation

Key Metrics

Platform Performance Metrics

Deployment Frequency: Track improvements for adopting teams
Lead Time for Changes: Measure from commit to production
Change Failure Rate: Monitor failed deployments
Time to Restore Service: Track incident recovery times

Community Health Metrics

Contributors: Active monthly contributors
Pull Requests: PR volume and merge rate
Response Time: Time to first response on issues
Community Size: Slack/Discord members, mailing list subscribers

Business Metrics

Adoption: Organizations deploying Fawkes
NPS Score: User satisfaction (target: 50+)
Documentation Quality: Page views, search success rate
Cost Savings: Infrastructure efficiency vs. manual platform building

Guiding Principles

1. Developer Experience is Paramount

Every feature must improve developer productivity, reduce cognitive load, or enable self-service.

2. Measure Everything

If it can't be measured, it can't be improved. Build observability into every component.

3. Security is Non-Negotiable

Security scanning, policy enforcement, and compliance are built-in, not bolt-on.

4. Learn While Building

The platform doubles as a learning environment with integrated curriculum.

5. Community Over Features

A healthy, engaged community is more valuable than a feature-complete platform.

6. Open by Default

Decisions, roadmap, metrics, and discussions are public unless privacy requires otherwise.

7. Opinionated but Extensible

Provide golden paths for 80% of use cases; allow customization for the other 20%.

8. Multi-Cloud from Day One

Design for cloud portability even if initial implementation is AWS-only.

Scope

In Scope

Kubernetes-based infrastructure automation
CI/CD pipelines and deployment strategies
Observability (metrics, logs, traces)
Security scanning and policy enforcement
Developer portal and self-service catalog
GitOps workflows
DORA metrics automation
Learning curriculum and certification alignment
Multi-cloud support (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Documentation and community building

Out of Scope (Explicitly)

Application frameworks or languages (we provide templates, not frameworks)
Source control management (we integrate with GitHub/GitLab, not replace them)
Project management tools (we integrate, not replace)
Business-specific workflows (keep platform generic, extensible)
On-premises only deployments (cloud-first, on-prem possible but not primary)

Future Consideration

Edge computing and IoT deployments
Machine learning platform capabilities
FinOps and cost optimization features
Compliance automation (SOC2, HIPAA, etc.)
Advanced chaos engineering integration

Risks and Mitigation

Technical Risks

Risk	Impact	Mitigation
Integration complexity delays MVP	High	Start with minimal integrations, prioritize stability over features
Scalability issues at enterprise scale	High	Design for scale from day one, conduct load testing early
Security vulnerabilities in dependencies	High	Automated scanning, regular updates, security-first culture

Community Risks

Risk	Impact	Mitigation
Maintainer burnout	Critical	Grow maintainer team early, establish rotation schedules
Low adoption / community interest	High	Invest heavily in documentation, marketing, and partnerships
Competing projects fragment efforts	Medium	Differentiate clearly, collaborate where possible

Business Risks

Risk	Impact	Mitigation
Insufficient funding for infrastructure	Medium	Seek cloud credits, CNCF support, sponsorships
Certification partnerships fail	Medium	Maintain standalone value, diversify partnerships
Enterprise concerns about support	Medium	Build professional services ecosystem, offer paid support options

Resource Requirements

Human Resources (MVP Phase)

Technical Lead / Architect: 1 FTE (50% project lead, 50% architecture)
Backend Engineers: 2-3 contributors (part-time acceptable)
Documentation Writer: 0.5 FTE (can be distributed)
Community Manager: 0.25 FTE (grows to 0.5 FTE post-launch)

Infrastructure Resources

Development/Testing: AWS EKS cluster, supporting services (~$500/month)
Demo Environment: Always-on demo instance (~$300/month)
CI/CD: GitHub Actions (free tier initially)
Communication: Slack/Discord (free tier)
Documentation Hosting: GitHub Pages or Netlify (free)

Financial Resources (First Year)

Infrastructure: $10,000 (offset by cloud credits)
Tools/Services: $5,000 (domain, email, premium tools)
Events/Marketing: $5,000 (conference travel, swag)
Contingency: $5,000
Total: ~$25,000 (significant portion via sponsorships/credits)

Stakeholders

Internal Stakeholders

Project Lead: Overall vision and strategy
Maintainer Team: Technical direction and execution
Core Contributors: Feature development and community support

External Stakeholders

Platform Engineering University: Certification alignment, educational content
CNCF: Potential project hosting, infrastructure support, visibility
Cloud Providers (AWS, Azure, GCP): Infrastructure credits, reference architectures
Enterprise Users: Requirements, feedback, case studies
Open Source Community: Contributors, users, advocates

Communication Plan

Internal Communication

Maintainer Meetings: Bi-weekly, 60 minutes, public minutes
Contributor Sync: Monthly, 30 minutes, open to all contributors
Async Updates: GitHub Discussions, Slack channels

External Communication

Community Newsletter: Bi-weekly updates on progress, contributions
Blog Posts: Weekly technical content, case studies, announcements
Social Media: Daily engagement on Twitter/X, LinkedIn
Office Hours: Bi-weekly, live Q&A and support
Conferences: Quarterly speaking engagements (KubeCon, PlatformCon, DevOpsDays)

Crisis Communication

Security Issues: Immediate disclosure via security mailing list, GitHub advisory
Service Outages: Status page updates, post-mortem published within 48 hours
Community Issues: Transparent handling per Code of Conduct, documented decisions

Timeline

Phase 0: Foundation (Weeks 1-2)

Establish governance, communication infrastructure
Initial documentation and architecture

Phase 1: Core Platform (Weeks 3-5)

Backstage portal, CI/CD pipelines, GitOps implementation

Phase 2: Observability (Weeks 6-8)

Metrics stack, DORA automation, deployment strategies

Phase 3: Launch Preparation (Weeks 9-12)

Documentation completion, dojo curriculum, launch activities

Post-MVP: Iteration and Growth (Months 4-12)

Multi-cloud expansion, advanced features, community scaling

Success Celebration

Milestone Celebrations

First Contributor: Public thank you, contributor spotlight
MVP Launch: Virtual celebration, team recognition
100 GitHub Stars: Social media celebration, community thank you
First Production Deployment: Case study, blog post
1 Year Anniversary: Annual report, contributor awards, retrospective

Amendment Process

This charter may be amended through the governance process defined in GOVERNANCE.md. Major changes require community input and maintainer approval.

Charter Version: 1.0 Established: October 4, 2025 Last Reviewed: October 4, 2025 Next Review: April 4, 2026 (6-month intervals)

Approved By:

Project Lead: [Your Name/Signature]
Date: October 4, 2025

Appendix: Alignment with Industry Standards

DORA Research Alignment

Fawkes directly supports all 24 DORA capabilities with particular focus on:

Trunk-based development
Continuous integration and delivery
Monitoring and observability
Database change management
Infrastructure as code

Platform Engineering Principles

Aligned with Team Topologies and platform engineering best practices:

Platform as a product mindset
Self-service capabilities
Cognitive load reduction
Enabling team structure

CNCF Landscape

Positioned in the CNCF landscape as:

Category: Developer Portal / Internal Developer Platform
Complementary to: Backstage, ArgoCD, Prometheus
Competing with: Commercial IDPs (Humanitec, Port.io)

End of Charter