April 2017 Summaries

A 2016 Global Developer Survey revealed that a significant number of developers frequently release incomplete or non-functional code, primarily due to pressure from senior management and unrealistic deadlines. This trend, with over 81 percent of developers admitting to premature releases, highlights a disconnect between management and development teams, resulting in broken software and frustrated users. The survey differentiates between releasing early to gather feedback and releasing unfinished code, which can lead to customer dissatisfaction. To mitigate these issues, the adoption of robust release management strategies, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, and DevOps practices is recommended. These approaches help ensure code readiness and improve communication and collaboration, ultimately allowing for more realistic deadlines and reducing the pressure to release unfinished code. Additionally, more frequent releases can alleviate the rush to meet deadlines by providing more opportunities to ship polished updates.

GitLab 9.1 introduces burndown charts to help software development teams manage their workflow more effectively, allowing them to track and visualize incomplete issues as they progress through project milestones. These charts display the number of issues left, along with their cumulative weight, over the remaining time before a deadline, aiding teams in anticipating obstacles and making timely decisions regarding resources or project scope. Frontend Lead Jacob Schatz highlights the utility of burndown charts in maintaining an overview of team progress while enabling engineers to self-manage and stay focused, as detailed in his webcast on managing the DevOps culture shift.

Git is the leading distributed version control system, favored for its flexibility and integration capabilities, but it requires a management solution to enhance usability for non-developers and to add enterprise features. Git management solutions provide graphical user interfaces that facilitate project visualization, code change reviews, and secure access management, while also offering integration with modern tools like Kubernetes. When selecting a Git management solution, organizations must consider whether to opt for a hosted or on-premise setup, the necessity for integration with other development lifecycle tools, and budget constraints. Open-source options can offer cost savings, but it is important to ensure they meet organizational needs and can scale effectively.

In the current landscape of rapid software delivery and evolving security threats, innersourcing emerges as a pivotal strategy for enterprises to enhance security and collaboration. By integrating open source development techniques within a corporate environment, innersourcing facilitates greater visibility, collaboration, and code quality while keeping sensitive code internal. This approach enables developers to freely access and contribute to various projects, fostering innovation and improving security through continuous integration and automated testing. It also bridges the gap between security and development teams, allowing security specialists to provide ongoing feedback throughout the development process rather than at the final stages. Innersourcing has proven effective in uncovering hidden security vulnerabilities, as demonstrated by GitLab's experience in identifying and swiftly addressing a critical vulnerability. Furthermore, by making internal projects visible and documenting them thoroughly, organizations can enhance knowledge sharing, allowing development teams to tackle recurring security issues more effectively and innovate within security constraints.

Cloud native development represents a shift from traditional monolithic applications to microservices, resulting in an increased number of projects and highlighting the need for efficient application lifecycle management. This approach involves creating applications specifically for the cloud, utilizing loosely coupled services that leverage the cloud computing model and container schedulers, rather than simply running traditional applications in a cloud environment. The focus is on re-architecting applications to prioritize services over machines, marking a significant step in digital transformation. A video demonstration from a Cloud Native webcast, led by Head of Product Mark Pundsack, showcases how GitLab can be installed on Kubernetes in under ten minutes, including building projects, creating review apps, storing Docker images, deploying to production, and monitoring with Prometheus, illustrating GitLab's vision for cloud-native development.

Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) are fundamental to modern software development, allowing businesses to release new features more frequently and efficiently. CI automates tedious manual processes, reducing time spent on debugging and enabling developers to focus on other tasks while builds and tests run automatically. By integrating with tools like Docker and Kubernetes, CI leverages cloud power without requiring local machine resources, thus increasing flexibility and efficiency. This automation not only saves time but also reduces costs by identifying issues early in the development cycle, preventing costly late-stage fixes. Additionally, frequent integration minimizes downtime during updates, enhancing user experience and lowering stress levels for developers and managers. For further insights into CI/CD benefits, a webcast titled "From Continuous Integration to Continuous Everything" is available on demand.

GitLab.com has announced the introduction of new paid subscription plans that will offer users access to additional enterprise features, increased support levels, and a cap on the number of private CI minutes available on shared runners starting May 1st. This change comes in response to the platform's significant growth, with over two million projects and a 16-fold increase in CI usage. While these changes aim to maintain the availability of a free plan with unlimited private repositories and key features, the new paid plans will introduce a limit of 2000 CI minutes per month for private projects using shared runners, affecting less than 3% of current users. Public projects under the GitLab Open Source Program will receive Gold tier features and CI benefits. The Bronze, Silver, and Gold plans will offer varying levels of support, with the Gold plan providing a 4-hour response time for support tickets. Users have the option to set up their own runners with no limitations on CI minutes, and the storage limit of 10GB per project will soon be enforced.

GitLab employs a structured and efficient system for managing engineering tasks, prioritizing regressions, deliverables, and bugs to ensure productivity and code quality. This approach minimizes the need for excessive meetings and emphasizes asynchronous communication through issue boards and labels, enabling engineers to focus primarily on coding. Regressions are given top priority to maintain existing functionalities, while deliverables are planned and assigned based on team strengths and deadlines. Bugs are addressed in available time, allowing developers to familiarize themselves with the codebase and contribute to software stability. This method, introduced by CTO Dmitriy Zaporozhets, fosters self-sufficiency among remote engineers and ensures transparent progress tracking, making it easier to meet project goals.

As enterprises increasingly adopt DevOps cultures, tools that enhance collaboration and information sharing are becoming crucial in the software development process. The shift towards DevOps emphasizes integration and communication across teams, requiring ongoing updates and feedback collection to streamline the development lifecycle and improve outcomes. This approach fosters a more inclusive environment where non-technical team members can contribute to promoting releases and gathering customer feedback, ultimately supporting the development teams. The Global Developer Report highlights that over half of developers identify as developers or engineers, providing insights into their preferences and tool usage, with a significant preference for digital communication methods like email and instant messaging over in-person meetings. This preference underscores the importance of collaboration tools in maintaining open communication lines, especially for distributed teams, leading to a more efficient development process and a quicker time to market.