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Draft: Explore alternatives for including Release Supervisors in RM Slack events

This is a WIP

Problem Statement

We've recently onboarded contractors as Release Supervisors who need to be notified of critical release events alongside our Release Managers. However, we're facing Slack workspace constraints:

  • Cannot add contractors to existing @release-managers group - Due to company policy and workspace configuration
  • Cannot create a new Slack user group - Admin permissions required that we don't have access to change

This issue is there to discuss a visibility gap where Release Supervisors may miss Slack notifications targeted to @release-managers that require awareness or action, such as when packages are ready to be promoted or when a deploy fails.

Current State

Release Managers (@release-managers) are currently pinged for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to:

  • Package promotion readiness
  • Deploy failures
  • High severity incidents

Desired State

  • Release Supervisors receive are also notified on specific release-related events as Release Managers
  • Release Managers remain the primary group, especially for incident management
  • Solution should scale as we potentially add more Release Supervisors
  • Solution should be easily "revertable" for we find a more elegant solution using Slack's infrastructure.

Constraints

  • No ability to modify Slack workspace settings or user group permissions
  • Should not require significant changes to existing workflows

Questions to Explore

  1. Can we use Slack workflows or automation to forward messages?
  2. Are there bot/integration solutions that could bridge this gap?
  3. Should we consider non-Slack alternatives for certain notifications (ie: email)?

Acceptance Criteria

  • Solution identified that ensures Release Supervisors receive critical notifications
  • Documentation for how to notify both groups
  • Solution can scale with additional Release Supervisors