Because observability is such a broad topic – and often something we learn on the job – it can feel like there’s too much to learn at once. But you don’t have to tackle everything and can start with the basics and build from there!

Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.

No matter what tooling is in place, there are still observability fundamentals that developers should know. That’s why I’ve put together a primer on the different telemetry types, when to use them, how to understand the data journey, and what to look for in time series graphs.