Operational maturity for production

The text discusses the concept of operational maturity in software development, emphasizing it as a continuous process rather than a fixed goal. It covers the importance of understanding current risks and incremental improvements in areas such as scalability, security, and observability, using examples from various projects that range from startups to established companies. The post further explores key stages in operational maturity, including prototyping, observing, testing, and protecting applications, as well as hardening and scaling them as they grow. Additionally, it criticizes certain industry practices, such as premature formalism and the complexity of current backend platforms, proposing that abstractions and dynamic consistent caching can alleviate these challenges. The piece concludes by highlighting the potential of platforms like Convex, which integrate systems into a cohesive backend service designed for product developers, to simplify development and enhance performance without the need for extensive backend teams.