Draft: Add plan leads as codeowners for PDF
Why is this change being made?
Summary
This change designates GitLab's Plan stage leadership as the Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs) for maintaining the internal handbook pages concerning Product Development Flow, Planning with GitLab, and Dogfooding.
- https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development/how-we-work/product-development-flow/
- https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/product/product-processes/planning-with-gitlab/
- https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/product/product-processes/dogfooding-for-r-d/
Background
These handbook pages serve as the foundational documentation that teams across GitLab base their development processes on. They establish the core assumptions from which we derive productivity metrics and value stream measurements organization-wide.
Rationale
The Plan stage is ideally positioned to maintain these pages because:
- They develop and own the GitLab product features that directly enable these processes
- They have deep expertise in planning workflows and development methodologies
- They understand the technical implementation details that support these processes
- Their product roadmap directly impacts how these processes evolve
By making Plan stage leadership the DRI, we ensure these foundational handbook pages remain accurate, up-to-date, and aligned with the capabilities of our own product as it continues to evolve.
Impact
This change will improve the consistency and reliability of our internal process documentation, leading to better alignment across teams and more accurate organizational metrics derived from these established processes.
- Earlier and more comprehensive internal adoption of new Planning features for improved efficiency and better dogfooding coverage.
- Regular maintenance and timely review of proposals to these pages.
- Through the continued refinement of practices and improved planning processes; higher quality software delivery that is more predictable and timely in its delivery.
Who
- Group Product Manager (@izzychu)
- Senior Engineering Manager (@johnhope)
- Product Design Manager (seat empty)
- Principal Product Managers (@gweaver)
- PMs/EMs by opt-in
Current State
- Planning with GitLab and Dogfooding for R&D pages are currently unowned and ownership falls back to the CEO.
- The Product Development Flow has multiple owners but the list looks out of date.
The commit graph of the Product Development Flow page in particular shows a drop-off in maintenance over time.
Raw data
| date | commits | lines_added | lines_deleted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-03-15 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-08-06 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025-09-10 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021-06-14 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021-10-20 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| 2021-10-21 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021-02-02 | 2 | 8 | 5 |
| 2023-01-11 | 1 | 8 | 5 |
| 2021-10-22 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| 2024-12-19 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-12-02 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-07-09 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2025-08-13 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-11-14 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021-10-27 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 2021-10-28 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2021-02-09 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 2025-08-19 | 1 | 82 | 154 |
| 2021-01-06 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2022-11-04 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| 2021-01-07 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 2025-04-09 | 1 | 18 | 17 |
| 2024-08-12 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2021-07-26 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-08-14 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2023-02-24 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2025-06-16 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-08-03 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025-02-05 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
| 2024-03-04 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 2023-01-25 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2023-01-26 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2023-01-27 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 2021-02-19 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| 2021-01-11 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2025-04-10 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025-08-26 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-11-10 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-12-03 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| 2025-01-06 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-12-04 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
| 2024-09-23 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| 2025-01-09 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-06-02 | 1 | 8 | 6 |
| 2020-12-08 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-02-05 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2025-07-25 | 1 | 143 | 0 |
| 2024-02-07 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2020-11-02 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2024-05-14 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| 2020-11-03 | 3 | 139 | 294 |
| 2020-11-04 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2024-10-29 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2022-06-09 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| 2022-05-02 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 2021-06-30 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021-03-24 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2021-03-29 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 2024-07-24 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2022-12-22 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2022-07-12 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2022-07-14 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-12-11 | 2 | 9 | 2 |
| 2021-01-21 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2020-08-08 | 2 | 14 | 14 |
| 2021-01-22 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-12-13 | 2 | 2 | 39 |
| 2020-07-01 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2020-12-14 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2024-06-26 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-07-02 | 3 | 44 | 42 |
| 2020-12-16 | 2 | 12 | 12 |
| 2020-12-17 | 5 | 13 | 9 |
| 2021-01-28 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020-07-06 | 1 | 41 | 26 |
| 2022-09-20 | 1 | 11 | 11 |
| 2022-11-28 | 1 | 8 | 4 |
| 2020-07-08 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2020-11-12 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| 2022-09-22 | 1 | 11 | 12 |
| 2022-06-16 | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| 2022-09-23 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2022-06-17 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 2023-12-01 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| 2022-10-24 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2023-12-04 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2022-10-25 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2022-05-12 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025-03-27 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-02-07 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2020-09-12 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 2020-09-14 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 2020-09-16 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-05-18 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2020-09-17 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
| 2023-11-02 | 1 | 44 | 44 |
| 2020-09-18 | 1 | 16 | 4 |
| 2020-08-10 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-04-12 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2020-08-17 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-12-21 | 6 | 15 | 6 |
| 2023-10-02 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-08-19 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 2022-07-29 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-02-23 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 2020-07-14 | 1 | 10 | 10 |
| 2023-08-02 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-12-29 | 5 | 9 | 6 |
| 2023-08-09 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 2020-09-21 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020-09-22 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024-01-29 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2022-01-14 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-10-26 | 1 | 302 | 137 |
| 2020-08-20 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-10-27 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2020-08-21 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| 2020-10-28 | 3 | 7 | 17 |
| 2021-12-07 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-10-29 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 2022-01-19 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2020-08-25 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-08-26 | 6 | 12 | 13 |
| 2020-08-27 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| 2022-04-29 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-08-28 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2021-11-05 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-07-22 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021-10-01 | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| 2020-11-30 | 2 | 218 | 237 |
| 2020-07-29 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 2022-02-23 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2023-12-22 | 1 | 14 | 14 |
| 2023-04-03 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2023-12-27 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-06-29 | 1 | 358 | 0 |
| 2023-11-21 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2023-07-17 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2023-07-18 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2020-08-31 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021-11-10 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2021-07-08 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2020-07-30 | 8 | 16 | 11 |
| 2023-02-06 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2021-11-17 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021-10-12 | 2 | 22 | 22 |
| 2021-09-16 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2021-10-15 | 1 | 18 | 20 |
| 2020-06-30 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 2025-07-02 | 1 | 9 | 9 |
| 2021-12-24 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Author and Reviewer Checklist
Please verify the check list and ensure to tick them off before the MR is merged.
-
Provided a concise title for this Merge Request (MR) -
Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say why, not just what -
Copy/paste the Slack conversation to document it for later, or upload screenshots. Verify that no confidential data is added, and the content is SAFE -
Assign reviewers for this MR to the correct -
The when to get approval handbook section explains when DRI approval is required - The who can approve handbook section explains how to identify the DRI
- If the MR does not require DRI approval, consider asking someone on your team, such as your manager.
- The approver may merge the MR. If they approve but don't merge, you can merge.
-
For transparency, share this MR with the audience that will be impacted. -
Team: For changes that affect your direct team, share in your group Slack channel -
Department: If the update affects your department, share the MR in your department Slack channel -
Division: If the update affects your division, share the MR in your division Slack channel -
Company: If the update affects all (or the majority of) GitLab team members, post an update in #whats-happening-at-gitlab linking to this MR - For high-priority company-wide announcements work with the internal communications team to post the update in #company-fyi and align on a plan to circulate in additional channels like the "While You Were Iterating" Newsletter
Commits
- Add plan leads as codeowners for PDF
Edited by John Hope