How Building An IDP With Backstage Can Reduce Developer Cognitive Load

The cognitive load on developers is a growing concern. As teams navigate an increasing number of tools, services, and complex workflows, the potential for burnout, inefficiency, and mistakes rises.

Developers are often bogged down by multiple contexts, switching between systems and managing tasks outside of coding, which detracts from productivity and creativity.

Building an Internal Developer Portal (IDP) with Backstage solves these issues.

It simplifies the development process by centralizing tools, automating repetitive tasks, and giving developers immediate access to the needed resources.

By minimizing distractions and context switching, an IDP like Backstage significantly reduces cognitive load, allowing developers to focus on what matters most: building software.

The Importance Of Reducing Cognitive Load

Understanding Cognitive Load

Cognitive load refers to the mental effort required to perform a task. In software development, high cognitive load is often caused by complex toolchains, fragmented workflows, and the constant need to search for information.

If developers must juggle multiple environments, constantly switch contexts, or handle non-standardized workflows, their mental energy is drained by tasks unrelated to problem-solving or writing code.

Reducing extraneous cognitive load arising from inefficient processes is critical in modern development. When an IDP like Backstage streamlines these workflows, developers can spend less time on administrative or organizational tasks and more time on creative, value-driven work.

This reduction in cognitive load leads to improved productivity, less burnout, and better team dynamics.

The Impact Of High Cognitive Load

High cognitive load can severely impact developer performance. When developers are forced to manage an overwhelming number of tools, resources, or repetitive tasks, they are more likely to experience frustration, fatigue, and even burnout. Over time, this can lead to increased errors, reduced creativity, and negatively impacted team morale.

For example, a team that lacks a centralized platform might spend excessive time searching for resources or resolving issues across multiple tools, which adds to the cognitive burden.

By centralizing these resources through Backstage, developers can quickly find what they need, allowing them to stay focused and reduce the risk of mental overload.

Introducing Internal Developer Portal (IDP)

Understanding IDP

An Internal Developer Portal (IDP) is designed to be a central hub for developers, providing access to all the tools, documentation, and resources they need to build, test, and deploy software.

Rather than navigating multiple disconnected systems, an IDP simplifies workflows by offering a single point of interaction, reducing the time spent on non-development tasks.

Backstage As An IDP

Backstage, an open-source platform built by Spotify, is an ideal solution for creating an IDP. It provides a framework that brings all necessary tools and services into one unified interface. 

Backstage focuses on developer autonomy by offering self-service capabilities, integration with various tools, and customization options. This empowers developers to manage their environments more efficiently without having to rely on external teams for every request.

With Backstage as the foundation for an IDP, development teams can experience fewer context switches, more streamlined workflows, and faster onboarding for new developers.

Backstage reduces cognitive load and enhances developer productivity by eliminating the need to juggle multiple tools and services.

Also Read: How To Aggregate And Visualize Performance Data In Backstage For Effective Incident Response

Key Features Of Backstage That Alleviate Cognitive Load

Software Templates

Backstage’s software templates are a game-changer when it comes to automating repetitive tasks. These templates allow developers to quickly spin up new projects without manually configuring every detail, saving time and ensuring that best practices are consistently followed across the organization.

For example, when creating a new microservice, instead of manually setting up the architecture each time, developers can use a pre-configured template in Backstage. This ensures consistency across projects and reduces the cognitive burden of remembering specific configurations for each new build.

Self-Service Capabilities

One of Backstage's most powerful aspects is its self-service capabilities, which empower developers to access resources without waiting on external teams.

Whether it's provisioning a new environment, deploying a service, or requesting infrastructure, developers can handle these tasks autonomously. This reduces bottlenecks and friction, allowing teams to work more independently and efficiently.

Backstage significantly reduces cognitive load by removing the need for constant external support. Developers can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time coding, resulting in less frustration and improved productivity.

Service Catalog

Backstage’s Service Catalog provides a centralized view of all services and resources within an organization. Instead of searching through different platforms or systems, developers can easily locate the tools and services they need in one place.

This centralized access eliminates the cognitive overhead that comes with switching between tools, especially when onboarding new team members.

The Service Catalog simplifies the onboarding process for new developers. It allows them to quickly understand the available services and tools, drastically reducing their initial cognitive load.

TechDocs For Centralized Documentation

Searching for scattered documentation can be time-consuming and mentally taxing. Backstage’s TechDocs feature provides unified access to all technical documentation, ensuring that developers can find what they need quickly and easily.

By centralizing documentation, Backstage reduces the time spent searching for information, helping to minimize cognitive load. Additionally, TechDocs automatically updates documentation, ensuring it remains accurate and relevant so developers always have the latest information at their fingertips.

Global Search

Backstage’s global search feature enables developers to quickly discover resources like services, documentation, and templates from within the platform.

This feature eliminates the need to navigate across multiple tools and services, reducing the time spent searching and the cognitive strain associated with it.

Additionally, the search can be customized to include external platforms and tools, further streamlining the development workflow and allowing developers to remain in a single environment for most of their tasks.

Integration With Other Platforms

Backstage integrates with a wide range of development tools, including CI/CD pipelines, cloud platforms, and monitoring services. This centralized access ensures that developers don’t have to switch between different systems to manage their workflows.

By offering a unified interface for all tools, Backstage helps reduce context switching and simplifies the development process.

Integrations with platforms like CI/CD pipelines also mean that developers can manage builds, deploy services, and monitor application health from within Backstage, further minimizing cognitive load.

Centralized Metrics, Logs, And Reporting

Backstage provides a comprehensive overview of an application’s health by aggregating metrics, logs, and system performance data. Developers no longer need to switch between tools to monitor and troubleshoot their applications.

With everything consolidated in one place, decision-making becomes easier and reduces cognitive load.

This also allows teams to quickly identify issues, improving response times and minimizing the stress of navigating multiple platforms to troubleshoot problems.

Best Practices For Building An IDP With Backstage

Strategic Planning

Building an IDP with Backstage requires careful planning. The first step is to identify your development team's cognitive load challenges. By understanding the specific pain points, you can design an IDP that directly addresses these issues.

Engagement

Involving developers in the design process is crucial. By getting input from the team, you can ensure that the IDP meets their specific needs. This also helps with adoption, as developers are more likely to use a system they helped create.

Iterative Improvement

Building an IDP is not a one-time project. Launching an MVP and then continuously refining it based on feedback ensures that the platform evolves with your team’s needs.

Measuring The Impact Of Backstage On Cognitive Load

Once an IDP like Backstage is implemented, understanding its effectiveness in reducing cognitive load is crucial. This requires evaluating the changes in developer workflows, productivity, and satisfaction using a combination of quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback.

By employing a data-driven approach and direct insights from the team, organizations can ensure that the IDP continues to meet its objectives and evolves as necessary.

Quantitative Metrics

Quantitative metrics provide measurable data that can reveal how Backstage impacts productivity and reduces cognitive load. Some key metrics include:

• Time to task completion: By comparing the time it takes developers to complete tasks before and after implementing Backstage, teams can gauge improvements in efficiency. This could involve measuring how long developers spend setting up environments, deploying new services, or finding documentation and resources.
• Context switching frequency: Tracking how often developers need to switch between tools or platforms is another vital metric. A reduction in context switching is a strong indicator that Backstage is streamlining workflows. Teams can monitor usage patterns to see whether developers are now staying within the IDP to perform tasks, indicating decreased fragmentation.
• Cycle time: Measuring the overall cycle time from the start of a task to completion can help assess the impact of Backstage on the development process. Less time wasted on non-development tasks like searching for tools or resolving issues typically results in shorter cycle times, showing that the IDP is effectively reducing mental overhead.
• Deployment frequency and lead time for changes: These metrics can also serve as indicators of reduced cognitive load. If teams are able to deploy more frequently and with shorter lead times due to a streamlined IDP, it’s a strong sign that Backstage is helping developers focus on their core tasks without unnecessary distractions.

By tracking these quantitative metrics over time, organizations can clearly understand how much Backstage is reducing cognitive load and enhancing productivity. Continuous monitoring also allows teams to identify areas for further improvement and adjust the IDP as needed.

Qualitative Feedback

While quantitative metrics offer measurable results, qualitative feedback provides the context behind the numbers. Gathering insights directly from developers helps paint a fuller picture of how Backstage is being experienced and where it may still need improvement.

• Developer interviews and focus groups: Conducting in-depth interviews or focus group discussions with developers can uncover nuanced insights that surveys or analytics might miss. These sessions can explore how Backstage impacts daily workflows, whether it reduces frustrations, and how intuitive developers find the platform.
• Anonymous feedback channels: Offering anonymous feedback channels within the team can encourage more candid responses, especially regarding areas where Backstage might still be causing friction. Developers may point out bottlenecks, request additional features, or highlight improvements that have significantly improved their productivity.
• Feedback on specific features: It's also valuable to gather feedback on specific features within Backstage, such as the Service Catalog, Software Templates, and TechDocs. Asking developers how they interact with these features and whether they feel these tools reduce their mental effort can yield actionable insights for refining the IDP.
• Usability and onboarding experiences: Developers who have recently joined the team are a great resource for feedback, as they have fresh perspectives on the onboarding experience. Understanding whether Backstage helped them ramp up quickly and avoid the overwhelming task of navigating unfamiliar tools can validate the portal’s impact on cognitive load reduction.

Qualitative feedback allows for a deeper understanding of the developer experience, highlighting both the IDP's successes and potential pain points. By combining both quantitative metrics and developer feedback, organizations can continuously refine their Backstage implementation to maximize its positive impact on cognitive load, productivity, and developer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Building an Internal Developer Portal with Backstage effectively reduces cognitive load and improves developer productivity. By centralizing resources, automating routine tasks, and streamlining workflows, Backstage empowers developers to focus on coding rather than administrative tasks.

Its user-friendly interface and seamless integrations help foster a more efficient and less stressful development environment, ensuring that teams can deliver high-quality work with fewer distractions.

If your team is experiencing cognitive overload, now is the time to explore how Backstage can optimize workflows and enhance productivity. Contact Axelerant’s Developer Experience experts to get started on building your own IDP today.