Earlier branch creation and extension of the maintenance policy: Final launch

Context

In the Software Delivery ecosystem, two GitLab release pillars are in the process of being redesigned:

  • New monthly release schedule- Creates the ongoing stable branch generation one week earlier in the monthly release schedule to allow for thorough testing and timely backports, increasing the quality, safety, and reliability of the monthly release while enabling a better developer experience and confidence.
  • Extension of the maintenance policy - Extends the bug fix support across all currently maintained releases, delivering a more reliable and consistent experience for customers and ensuring that more GitLab users on previous versions receive critical quality improvements without the need to upgrade immediately.

These activities have a high impact on the GitLab Engineering and Product activities, as well as on GitLab customers. To ease the transition, a soft launch will be trialed out before this final launch #21117 (closed). See #21430 for more details

To do

This issue is still in draft and the steps might evolve

Rollout

  • Rollout training for GitLab internal users #21252
  • Rollout the extension of the maintenance policy to GitLab customers (blog posts, CSM announcement)
  • Broadcast release changes through multimodal communication: Engineering all-hands, AMA and engineering-fyi
  • Analysis of metrics of success
Edited by Mayra Cabrera