Review at least 5 Development request for help issues and help SEs get help
OKR: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gitlab-OKRs/-/work_items/4226
There have been some comments about it being difficult to get help on dev for help request issues. I'll be reviewing a bunch of issues (some random, some brought up) to see what's happening and determine possible action items.
If you have a dev for help request that you need help moving forward, please let me know!
Relevant handbook section: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/support/workflows/how-to-get-help/#how-to-use-gitlabcom-to-formally-request-help-from-the-gitlab-development-team
Note: Fulfillment and Dedicated are out of scope of this issue as they each have a fairly different process.
Action items
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Add additional guidance in handbook on when and how to escalate. | See gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!755 (merged) -
Add guidance on always mentioning engineer when following up. Post in Slack/SWIR. | See gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!755 (merged) -
Add guidance on mentions/assignments if moved to another group/tracker. | See gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!633 (merged) -
Add guidance: If logs are in Kibana, copy/export single entries and/or find in Sentry. | See gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!633 (merged) -
Add sections notes: missing, eng/product section mapping in table if not 1:1, namely Ops = CI/CD | See gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!495 (merged) -
Issue: Add automation to auto-close old issues to ensure we know which ones might need attention. See #5390 (closed) -
Look at adding due dates to the templates to match SLO- See #5364 (comment 1584430142) for why not
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Make handbook SSOT on how to file issues | See gitlab-com/content-sites/handbook!935 (merged)
Issue notes
RT = Reply Time. Should be in business days rounded to day (or .5 if less than 1 day), where longest is SE waiting for response.
| Group | Link | FRT | Longest RT | Escalated to unblock? | How? | Effective? | Other comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composition Analysis | sec#71 | 1 | 3 | Y | Slack, Issue | Y - Slack | Group has a rotation, but it was not noted in the template. Template was updated in MR. |
| Auth | dev#126 | < .5 | < .5 | N | N/A | N/A | No assignee, but timely response, esp from EM. |
| Import | dev#124 | < .5 | 20 | Y | STAR Issue | Y/N | See comment |
| Container Registry | ops#138 | 4 | 14 | N | N/A | Y | Closed and moved to public issue |
| App Performance | enablement#17 | .5 | ? | Y/N | Slack, Issue | Y/N | |
| Pipeline Authoring | ops#169 | 3 | 5+ | Y/N | Slack, Issue | Y/N | #5364 (comment 1521557297) |
| Static Analysis | sec#83 | 2.5 | 2.5 | Y | Slack, Issue | Y | Slack lead to an engineer looking at it, not sure if the issue pings would also have done the trick. I wonder if the single cc in this group's template is not enough. I recently pinged Amar here and that got resolved via the same engineer after I escalated in Slack. |
| Static Analysis | sec#81 | 5+ | 3 | Y | Issue | Y | |
| App Performance | enablement#23 | 10 | 6 | Y | Issue | Y? | |
| Pipeline Security | ops#174 | 1 | 5 | Y | Slack | Y? | |
| Source Code | dev#142 | 4 | 6 | Y | Slack | Y | A message into the group's Slack channel brought the issue back into the foreground, and an Engineering Manager pinged several engineers and posted into other Slack channels, which diverted more attention toward the issue. |
| Pipeline Execution | ops#186 | 5 | 7 | N | N/A | N/A | |
| Runner | dev#196 | 11 | Y | Issue, Slack | N, Y | ||
| Source code | dev#130 | 20+ | ? | N | N/A | N/A |
Stats
Note: Week of 2023-06-23, announcement of earlier move to request for help issues.
