Proposal: Ensure GitLab internal users have visibility on active versions.
Context
Delivery is working to extend the GitLab maintenance policy to support bug fixes to the two previous monthly releases in addition to the current stable release &828 (closed). Part of this work will open up the stable branches to allow engineers to merge bug fixes directly into these branches.
Merging into active stable branches guarantees the bug fixes will be part of the next patch release available but only if the stable branch is associated with a version supported by the maintenance policy, if a bug fix is merged in an old stable branch (due to a backport request) that is no longer supported by the policy, a patch release can't be guaranteed.
Having visibility on the active versions will set expectations for GitLab engineers about the patch and security release processes.
Proposal: Ensure GitLab users have visibility on active versions.
A dedicated release versions dashboard could be built to list the active versions, the ones supported by the maintenance policy. Merge requests targeting stable branches could have a link to this dashboard and communicate patch releases can be expected for the versions listed.
In the above example, the supported versions by the GitLab Maintenance Policy are 15.8, 15.7, and 15.6, and therefore patch and security releases can be expected of them.
Upcoming iterations of the "release version" dashboard could list older versions (no longer supported) and the current release cycle.
Implementation steps
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Create a dedicated release versions dashboard. The same logic used for the patch release pressure panel could be re-used -
Update the Danger in the GitLab repo to state that patch releases can be expected for the valid versions and link to this dashboard. Merging bug fixes in branches outside the maintenance policy will require a backport release process.