Blog Post - Document how to implement incremental rollouts with GitLab CI

Engineer(s): @sean_carroll | Product Marketing: @williamchia | Tech Writer: @marcia | Engineering Manager: @darbyfrey

Please review the guidelines for feature block creation at https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/blog/release-posts/#feature-blocks. They are frequently updated, and everyone should make sure they are aware of the current standards (PM, PMM and TW).

PM release post item checklist

• Structure
  • Screenshot/video is included (optional for secondary items).
  • Check that image size < 150KB.
  • Check if the image shadow is applied correctly. Add image_noshadow: true when an image already has a shadow.
  • Remove any remaining instructions (comments).
  • Feature is added to data/features.yml (with accompanying screenshots).
• Frontmatter
  • Check feature availability frontmatter (available_in:) is correct: (Core, Starter, Premium, Ultimate).
  • Ensure videos and iframes added within the feature description are wrapped in <figure class="video_container"> tags (for responsiveness).
  • Check documentation link points to the latest docs (documentation_link:), and includes the anchor to the relevant section on the page if possible. If documentation is not yet available/merged for the feature in question, you may use a placeholder or use the link where the documentation will be added (often the engineer and tech writer know this ahead of time). Be sure to update this placeholder prior to publication if you do not use the final link.
  • Check that all links to about.gitlab.com content are relative URLs.
• Content
  • Check title is in sentence case, and feature and product names are in capital case.
  • Ensure that the title and description clearly explain the user problem we're solving and the value we're delivering. Make clear if it is a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature.
  • Check that documentation is updated, very clearly talks about the feature (mentions it by name).
  • Run the content through an automated spelling and grammar check.
  • Validate all links are functional and have meaningful text for SEO (e.g., "click here" is bad link text).

Review

When the above is complete and the content is ready for review, it should be reviewed by Product Marketing, Tech Writing, and the product director for this area. Please assign them when it is ready to be reviewed!

• Tech writer, PMM, and relevant product director assigned for review
  • Tech writer reviewed and approved
  • PMM reviewed and approved
  • Director reviewed and approved

PMM review

• PMM review
  • problem/solution: Does this describe the user's pain without this feature and why this feature alleviates that pain?
  • short/pithy: Is this communicated clearly with the fewest words possible?
  • tone clarify: Is the language and sentence structure clear and grammatically correct?
  • technical clarity: Does it make sense what this feature does even for folks who don't know anything about GitLab?

Tech writing review

• Verify Frontmatter:
  • Check that all links and URLs are wrapped in single quotes ' (documentation_link: 'https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/#amazing').
  • Check that name fields are wrapped in double quotes " (name: "Lorem ipsum").
  • No useless whitespace (end of line spaces, double spaces, extra blank lines, and lines with only spaces).
• Links
  • Verify all links (including in feature description) work and that anchors are valid (note: the H1 (top) anchor on a docs page is not valid). Links should not redirect.
  • Verify that the feature is clearly mentioned in the linked documentation. If not, suggest a better doc link. If none exists, note this and raise an issue for creation of documentation if needed.
• Content
  • Check that there are no typos or grammar mistakes, but style is up to the PM and PMM.
  • Ignoring style, verify that content accurately describes the feature based on your understanding of it.

Merge

Once all content is reviewed and complete, add the Ready label and assign this issue to the engineering manager. The EM is responsible for merging as soon as the implementing issue is deployed to GitLab.com, after which this content will appear on the GitLab.com Release page and can be included in the next release post. All release post items must be merged on or before the 17th of the month. If a feature is not ready by the 17th deadline, the EM should push the release post item to the next milestone.

Links

• Feature Issue: gitlab-org/gitlab#27264 (closed)
• Feature MR (optional):
• Release post (optional):

data/release_posts/unreleased/doc_incremental_rollout.yml

 features:
   secondary:
-    - name: "Document how to implement incremental rollouts with GitLab CI"
+    - name: "Incremental Rollouts with GitLab CI"
       available_in: [core, starter, premium, ultimate]
-      documentation_link: 'https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#extends'
+      documentation_link: 'https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/environments/incremental_rollouts.html'
       reporter: ogolowinski
       stage: release
       categories:
-        - 'incremental Rollout'
+        - 'Incremental Rollout'
         - 'Continuous Delivery'
       issue_url: 'https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/27264'
       description: |
-        When rolling out changes to your application, it is possible to release production changes to only a portion of your Kubernetes pods as a risk mitigation strategy. By releasing production changes gradually, error rates or performance degradation can be monitored, and if there are no problems all pods can be updated.
-
-        Auto DevOps already offers incremental rollout, but now we are happy to instruct users not using Auto DevOps how to achieve the same results with timed or manual incremental rollouts in a new guide.
+        Auto DevOps offers an incremental rollout feature which uses GitLab CI. 
+        We are happy to instruct are users who are not using Auto DevOps how to achieve the same functionality.