DevOps-as-a-Service: Platform Users and User Roles¶
The cooperation and billing model of Skyscrapers is based on Platform Users.
“Platform User” is any employee of, contractor of or person related to Customer who may be requesting support from Skyscrapers directly or indirectly, or may be accessing, deploying or maintaining application code through any means possible (UI, API, CI, etc) to platforms managed by Skyscrapers, or may be using or consuming cloud provider services within the cloud accounts managed by Skyscrapers.
This definition is part of your agreement with Skyscrapers.
We differentiate different types of pre-defined User Roles to determine the cooperation relationship with each person working for the Customer.
User Roles¶
Use the following guidelines to determine the User Role the persons qualify as.
ℹ️ As a customer you are contractually required to keep us up to date at all times on any team changes and what User Role the people in that team qualify as.
Technical Platform User¶
A Technical Platform User is any person working for Customer that contributes to the creation, maintenance, or deployment of code on environments managed by Skyscrapers.
→ Does this person “work on” or “change” something in the platform — code, infrastructure, pipelines, etc.? → Then they’re a Technical Platform User.
“Developer” is the most common job title that qualifies for this qualification.
General Platform User¶
A General Platform User is any person working for Customer who does not contribute to the code creation, deployment or maintenance, but instead uses or accesses the deployed applications or data on environments managed by Skyscrapers.
→ Does this person only “use” what’s deployed, like viewing dashboards and analyzing data from it, using apps, reading other data? → Then they’re a General Platform User
Platform Lead¶
DevOps-oriented or Developer oriented people we work with closely and overseeing all work between SkS and your own organisation. They give access to the full context on your side.
Usually we see 1 person per team holding this role.
Specific responsibilities in the cooperation:
- Determine priorities/urgency of all the work in the cooperation
- Add context where needed to help Skyscrapers deliver high quality work
- Keep oversight on all support requested from Customer side
Contract Owner¶
Person that has contractual decision powers and oversight. Can be anybody.
Specific responsibilities in the cooperation:
- Budget and SLA decisions
- Oversee general value and quality of the service delivery
Compliance Lead¶
First contact for security/compliance events and questions in both direction
Specific responsibilities in the cooperation:
- DPO and compliance first contact in the cooperation
- Required for GDPR
Features¶
Depending on the User Role a person qualifies as, the person may get access to certain features and services in the cooperation.
| Access | Platform Lead | Technical Platform User (formerly Supported Platform User) | General Platform User | Contract Owner | Compliance Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPN/AWS/Cluster access | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| GitHub Issues | Y, incl. Platform Components requests | Y, Support/advice only | N | Y | N |
| GitHub Repo | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Slack dedicated channel | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| 24/7 escalation | Y | Y | N | N | Y, for security and data incidents |
| Customer specific documentation on GitHub | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Pull Request creation | Y | Y, Vetted by the Platform Lead first | N | N | N |
| Access to https://docs.skyscrapers.eu/ | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Support | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| Trainings | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| Expert Sparring | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| Announcement Updates | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| Status calls | Y | N | Y | N | N |
Legacy Roles¶
Before 2024-31-12 and depending on the contract you may have, the following roles may have been defined before:
- Platform User: didn’t have differentiation between roles
- Customer Dev Lead: now named Platform Lead
- Contract Owner: similar to the current Contract Owner today
- Supported Platform User: per 2024 renamed to Technical Platform User
Over the next few months, your Skyscrapers Customer Lead will work with you in mapping your Platform Users to the new model.
FAQ¶
Q: What if my developers don’t need to interact with the Skyscrapers team on Github or Slack, and only push code to an internal repository that in the background deploys: does that still count as a Technical Platform User?
Yes.
Q: What if certain developers work only part-time, are not pure developers, etc? How is that counted?
We understand that team compositions vary. Part-time developers, hybrid roles, or contributors who rarely interact with the platform may warrant special consideration. Simply discuss these scenarios with your Customer Lead or sales contact, and we’ll work with you to find a fair arrangement.
Q: How does Skyscrapers know how many Platform Users should be invoiced?
We trust you to respect the agreement with the obligation to report changes and additions in team as they occur and at least each quarter. From time to time, we might ask you to confirm the number of Platform Users and their roles to ensure accurate billing. This open, trust-based approach allows us to keep costs transparent and fair for everyone.
Q: Why do you use Platform Users as pricing model?
We believe fair compensation should reflect the real value we deliver: building and maintaining cloud platforms, supporting developers, and sharing operational responsibility. In the past we’ve experimented with traditional pricing models, like pay-for-time or cloud spend percentages. We found they didn’t align our incentives with those of our customers and went about it differently.
In most online/digital product companies, you’ll find there is a certain ratio between developers and platform engineers. As the product team grows, so do platform demands: CI/CD usage, stability, security, and support needs. Those are also exactly the needs we cover with DevOps-as-a-Service.
Based on that thinking, we decided that the value we provide is best measured by the number of developers and people that get value from our work. The pricing scales automatically with the increasing team complexity and value they receive from us, making this model a fair, predictable and transparent basis for pricing. It also enables us to invest sustainably in innovation and long-term value for your team.