March 2019 Summaries

In recounting a personal experience with GitLab's recruitment process, the author highlights the company's commitment to its values, which are evident throughout the various stages of hiring. The process begins with a detailed questionnaire, followed by a screening call, a technical interview involving code review and live coding, and a manager interview, culminating in a final interview with a senior figure. The author emphasizes the transparency and supportive nature of the process, noting the clear communication, respectfulness, and efficiency at each step. Despite initial doubts about securing the position, the experience was educational and positive, reinforcing the author's desire to work for GitLab.

Application modernization is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution to avoid common pitfalls and ensure long-term success. Modernization efforts can fail due to reasons such as flawed strategies, over-reliance on consultants, outdated technology, oversimplification of organizational needs, and inadequate planning. To succeed, organizations should form cross-functional teams, adopt a "disagree and commit" approach to decision-making, map out development workflows to identify tool dependencies, and set small, iterative goals to allow flexibility and responsiveness to feedback. Prioritizing data protection, avoiding the perpetuation of inefficient practices, and addressing skill gaps through training are crucial for a successful transition. The overarching theme is that application modernization is an ongoing commitment to change that requires both strategic planning and adaptability.

Andrew Taylor, a Developer Programs Engineer at Pantheon, discusses the integration of GitLab and Pantheon to streamline WordPress and Drupal development workflows. He highlights common issues faced by developers, such as the limitations of a single staging server and the cumbersome process of using separate tools for source control management (SCM) and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD). Pantheon's multidev environments allow for on-demand creation of environments matching Git branches, which alleviates some of these issues, though Pantheon lacks built-in SCM and CI/CD tools. GitLab is presented as a comprehensive solution that includes SCM, CI/CD, and a container registry. Andrew details a tutorial for connecting GitLab with Pantheon, involving steps like creating a new GitLab project, setting up SSH keys, configuring environment variables, and using GitLab CI/CD to deploy code to Pantheon environments. He also explores automating multidev creation with Terminus, Pantheon's command line tool, and suggests further enhancements such as adding build steps, automated testing, and security measures. The integration aims to improve efficiency and collaboration in development workflows, with potential for future growth and customization through tools like Terminus plugins.

On March 20, 2019, GitLab released a critical security update to address a vulnerability in quick actions for issues that risked exposing project runner registration tokens to unauthorized users, following a report from its HackerOne program. A patch was applied to GitLab.com on March 17, 2019, to mitigate the issue, and a critical security fix was expedited for self-managed customers. On March 24, 2019, GitLab reset runner registration tokens for all projects on GitLab.com, advising users with automation dependent on these tokens to update their scripts with new tokens. An initial investigation found no evidence of security compromise, but GitLab committed to ongoing investigations and improving detection measures. In line with its transparency values, GitLab communicated the incident and apologized for any impact, emphasizing its commitment to information security and intentions to expand its security team. The company later updated its guidance for users affected by the token reset, reinforcing the need for script updates.

GitLab has extended the deadline for using its CI/CD features with external repositories, including those on GitHub, until March 22, 2020, offering users an additional six months to take advantage of these capabilities. This extension applies to private repositories on GitLab.com for Free or Bronze users and continues as part of the Premium tier for GitLab Self-managed, while public projects receive Gold features for free as part of GitLab's commitment to open source. The decision to extend the offer was influenced by the need to ensure users are properly notified, the evolving CI/CD market landscape, and the desire to gather more user feedback for feature improvements. GitLab encourages users to share their experiences and feedback through various channels to help enhance the service.

GitLab is working to enhance its search infrastructure by integrating Elasticsearch on GitLab.com to improve global search performance and code search availability for users, a feature already available to self-managed users. The primary challenges involve reducing the Elasticsearch index size, which currently occupies significant space, and enhancing administrative capabilities. Various strategies, such as adjusting NGram sizes and considering separate indexes, have been explored to optimize space usage and indexing speed. Despite setbacks like the inefficiency of forced merges and the need for full re-indexing when the schema changes, efforts continue to develop better administrative tools, enable selective indexing, and possibly allow disabling code indexing to provide more flexibility. Future plans include potentially sharding Elasticsearch per group to improve performance and resilience. GitLab remains committed to improving search capabilities while inviting community contributions and feedback.

Digital transformation, a key focus in the tech industry, involves accelerating software innovation to quickly deliver value to customers, impacting all sectors from retail to financial services. The process is driven by technologies such as mobile devices, IoT, machine learning, and big data, which collectively reshape industries. A crucial aspect of preparing for digital transformation is understanding and improving cycle time—the total elapsed time from the start to the end of a process—distinct from lead time, which measures customer wait times for new features. Reducing cycle time can enhance the DevOps lifecycle, allowing rapid responses to business priorities. Value stream management is essential, focusing on identifying and addressing bottlenecks to improve the flow of value from feature requests to user delivery. By measuring cycle and lead times, identifying process inefficiencies, and implementing automation, businesses can achieve more efficient delivery processes, thereby shortening lead times and better positioning themselves for successful digital transformation.

Atlassian's acquisition of AgileCraft raises questions about the importance of planning in the fast-paced software development lifecycle, emphasizing that planning in DevOps should be continuous and adaptable rather than a one-time event. GitLab exemplifies this integration by making planning a core element of the development workflow, offering features such as project management, kanban boards, epics, time-tracking, and agile portfolio management. These planning tools are seamlessly connected to other stages of software development, allowing developers, architects, and product managers to collaborate and adjust plans with full visibility of the entire cycle. While AgileCraft is recognized as a robust enterprise planning tool, GitLab distinguishes itself by providing comprehensive software development lifecycle management out of the box.

Before designing a new product feature, it is crucial to align the team by addressing key questions such as the problem to solve, the target users, and the steps required to address the issue. The Monitor group recently conducted a facilitated design session in Berlin during a Fast Boot, focusing on incident management, which allowed them to collaboratively answer these questions. The session involved three exercises: defining the problem through a boundary critique and the 1-2-4-All technique; building empathy with users by creating empathy map canvases for operational personas; and brainstorming product features based on user needs, culminating in a dot-voting process to prioritize features. The session, which included engineers, designers, and product managers, leveraged diverse perspectives and resulted in a shared understanding and commitment to the project. This participative approach not only facilitated alignment but also encouraged ongoing enthusiasm and commitment to the development process, prompting consideration of how to incorporate this energy into their regular, asynchronous workflow.

Legacy systems often become costly and inefficient over time, impeding growth and innovation due to the resources required for maintenance and the increased risk of security vulnerabilities. In highly regulated industries, outdated systems can even lead to financial liabilities, such as significant fines for data breaches. Despite the importance of modernizing these systems, many organizations struggle with "analysis paralysis" and resource constraints, which leaves limited budget for innovation. The U.S. federal budget exemplifies this issue, with a significant portion allocated to maintaining legacy systems rather than modernization. To alleviate these challenges, companies are adopting application modernization strategies, focusing on specific challenges and setting incremental goals to enhance development efficiency. This approach includes leveraging microservices, improving automation, simplifying toolchains, and reducing development lifecycles, as demonstrated by organizations like Ask Media Group, Equinix, Goldman Sachs, and Jaguar Land Rover, which have successfully transitioned to more agile and scalable solutions.

GitLab underwent a redesign of its group and project settings pages to improve user experience by organizing content into expandable sections, following a recent change to the project settings. The intention was to address the difficulty users faced in navigating long, cluttered pages, but initial feedback indicated that the changes made it even harder for users to find specific settings. To address this, a redesign was proposed that prioritized content using the 80/20 principle and improved section labels to enhance usability. This was piloted with the group settings, followed by extensive user testing to validate the changes. The results indicated that while the redesign took users longer to navigate, it improved their confidence and perceived ease of finding settings, with a significant increase in correct responses. This validated three out of four assumptions, marking the redesign as successful, and plans are in place to apply similar improvements to other settings pages. GitLab aims to empower designers to conduct their own UX research efficiently to continue enhancing user experiences.

GitLab has joined the CD Foundation as a founding member to promote collaboration and educate the industry on implementing CI/CD best practices. As pioneers in introducing cloud-native CI/CD, GitLab aims to advance the industry by ensuring secure and rapid code delivery to production. Beyond CI/CD, GitLab emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to software delivery, focusing on the entire DevOps lifecycle, which includes value stream management, operational excellence, security integration, and monitoring. Their 2019 product vision and future developments aim to streamline enterprise processes into a single application to foster faster innovation. As an open-source company, GitLab values community contributions and seeks to drive forward industry standards in collaboration with developers and enterprises worldwide.

GitLab emphasizes diversity as a core value, recognizing its importance for the success of their globally distributed team and the tech industry. The company has implemented a multidimensional approach to foster a culture of transparency, opportunity, and open communication. Through partnerships with organizations like Django Girls, Girls Get Geeky, and Rails Girls, GitLab supports initiatives that empower women in technology by offering free coding workshops. The GitLab Diversity Sponsorship program financially backs female-focused organizations, such as Wonder Women in Tech and Women Who Code, to inspire and empower women worldwide. GitLab also promotes STEM education by collaborating with initiatives like STEM Gems and has launched a mentorship program to support women in developing their skills and careers. These efforts aim to narrow the gender gap and create a balanced, inclusive team that can enhance GitLab's potential and contribute to global change.

An Engineering Manager at GitLab describes their innovative use of GitLab for conducting asynchronous retrospectives with their widely distributed team, using GitLab issues to facilitate participation across various time zones. To streamline the process, they automated retrospective issue creation through the async-retrospectives project, employing scheduled pipelines to create and update issues each month, thus allowing team members to contribute thoughts while still working on releases. This approach overcomes time zone challenges and enables easy reference to specific issues through linkable comments, although it lacks the fluidity of verbal discussions and slows team bonding, which are better facilitated by video calls. Despite these drawbacks, the asynchronous retrospectives have been positively received, eliminating time zone disadvantages and allowing for broader adoption across other teams, and the company remains committed to this practice while exploring further improvements.

The blog post provides a comprehensive guide on setting up Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) for iOS apps using GitLab and fastlane, focusing on building and publishing to TestFlight. It outlines the necessary prerequisites, such as Apple Store configuration, distribution certificates, and provisioning profiles, emphasizing the importance of proper setup in the Apple Developer console. The article discusses the use of macOS devices for building iOS apps, the configuration of GitLab runners, and the security implications of using shell executors. It also covers the initialization and configuration of fastlane, detailing the creation of necessary files like Fastfile and Gymfile to automate the build and deployment process. Key environment variables required for authentication and code signing are explained, ensuring smooth integration with the App Store. The post concludes by encouraging readers to explore additional fastlane capabilities and invites feedback on improving GitLab for iOS development.

Cycle time, traditionally seen as the period between starting and delivering software, is now being redefined to include the entire software development lifecycle, starting from the idea's inception through to its production deployment. This broader definition emphasizes the importance of the planning stage, as it lays the groundwork for efficient workflows, project management, and resource allocation. Reducing cycle time is crucial in the fast-paced tech industry, as it allows organizations to swiftly respond to market demands, deliver value to customers, and maintain a competitive edge. Long cycle times can lead to loss of market share, revenue, and opportunities, as organizations struggle to keep up with rapidly evolving customer needs. To combat this, increasing visibility and adopting continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices are recommended strategies. These approaches enhance collaboration, streamline processes, and ensure rapid and reliable delivery of software, thus enabling teams to focus on innovation and customer satisfaction.