# Why putting a pane of glass on a pile of sh\*t doesn't solve your problem

DevFeed: [Why putting a pane of glass on a pile of sh\*t doesn't solve your problem](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/why-putting-a-pane-of-glass-on-a-pile-of-sh-t-doesn-t-solve-your-problem-12281.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://platformengineering.org/blog/why-putting-a-pane-of-glass-on-a-pile-of-shit-doesnt-solve-your-problem>)

Author: Lee Ditiangkin

Published: 2026-07-23T08:16:12Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Platform Engineering Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/platform-engineering-blog.md>)

Topics: [DevOps](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/devops.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration.md>), [migration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/migration.md>), [Orchestration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/orchestration.md>), [Kubernetes](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kubernetes.md>), [Terraform](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/terraform.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>), [dashboards](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dashboards.md>)

Tags: [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/configuration.md>), [dashboards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dashboards.md>), [devops](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/devops.md>), [migration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/migration.md>), [opinion](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opinion.md>), [orchestration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/orchestration.md>), [terraform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/terraform.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article argues that adding a visual "single pane of glass" does not fix underlying platform problems. It advocates addressing difficult issues such as legacy migration, configuration management, collaboration between cloud operations and developers, and infrastructure orchestration to improve maintainability and developer self-service.

## Source excerpt

There's been this rumour going around lately, according to which the first step to successful platform transformations is visualizing what you have. "Putting a single pane of glass on top of everything". I believe this is plain nonsense. In this short opinion piece I want to articulate a long-lived conviction of mine: Put a pane of glass on a pile of sh*t and all your developers can see is a pile of sh*t. But let's briefly rewind: you're tasked with somehow "building a platform".