Demote Git LFS from category to feature under Source Code Management
Why is this change being made?
This is a proposal to demote Git LFS from category to a feature under Source Code Management, for which it already exists as an entry in features.yml categorized under "source_code_management".
First, Git LFS was never maintained as a separate category. There is no direction page for it. Historically, it existed as an entry in the categories.yml file, for an unknown reason. It also exists in features.yml as a feature.
This MR removes that entry in categories.yml & stages.yml and establishes Git LFS fully as a feature under Source Code Management.
Justification
Having a category for Git LFS individually does not align with the guidance provided in the Product handbook for selecting and naming categories:
Categories are high-level capabilities that may be a standalone product at another company. e.g. Portfolio Management. To the extent possible we should map categories to vendor categories defined by analysts.
We confirmed with @rragozzine
that "from an analyst coverage standpoint Git LFS does not warrant being its own category (it's difficult enough to find VCS coverage)." You can see his comment on this here.
Git LFS is also already an entry in features.yml categorized under "source_code_management".
Usage metrics
We are not tracking usage of Git LFS at this time and therefore no usage metrics are included in this MR as would normally be present in a business case to make a category change. We believe that justification provided above regarding the analyst definition is sufficient to execute this.
Approvals
Merge requests with changes to stages and groups and significant changes to categories need to be created, approved, and/or merged by each of the below:
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VP of Product @david
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The Product Director relevant to the affected Section(s) - @ogolowinski
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The Engineering Director relevant to the affected Section(s) - @dsatcher
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Director of Product Design @vkarnes
The following people need to be on the merge request so they stay informed:
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Chief Technology Officer @akramer
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Vice President of Development @clefelhocz1
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Vice President of Quality @meks
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Vice President of User Experience @clenneville
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The Product Marketing Manager relevant to the stage group(s) - @heather - approval seen here -
Director of Technical Writing @susantacker
After Approvals and Merge
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Create an issue in the triage-ops project to update GitLab Bot automation - gitlab-org/quality/triage-ops#1191 (closed) -
Mention the product group Technical Writer to update the documentation metadata -
Share MR in #product, #development, and relevant #s_, #g_, and #f_ slack channels