Draft: Product Development Flow v1 Beta (Milestone 13.5) Changelog
Why is this change being made?
What is the problem we're trying to solve?
As indicated by the Product Survey the current product development flow:
- Doesn’t Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Has too Many Steps
- Is too Prescriptive
What are the changes we've made to try to solve the problem?
- Introduced key participants table to clarify collaborators at each phase
- Replaced specific step by step instructions in each phase with potential activities to achieve specific outcomes
- Specified what’s required in each phase to labels and outcomes, leveraging Required
🔎
Why are you being notified?
The v1 (13.5) of the product development flow is being dogfooded (#9310 (closed)) during 13.6 by 5 product teams. After feedback and further improvements, it will be pushed to the rest of the product development team for adoption, as part of the 13.6 and 13.7 milestones. We want you to be aware of the direction we're headed.
What action is needed from you?
Please review this MR in conjunction with the product development flow draft page and drop any feedback or questions into this MR or the retrospective issue #9453 (closed). If you have suggestions, please feel free to raise a separate MR to the draft pd-flow page rather than making a suggestion in this MR, as this is just the changelog for 13.5 and will not be merged.
Further references:
Related epic: &938 (closed)
Related issues/MRs:
Release notes
As indicated by the Product Survey the current product development flow:
- Doesn’t Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Has too Many Steps
- Is too Prescriptive
This leads to inefficiency and lack inconsistency in process due to lack of clarity on what is required vs not required. It also results in less focus on value to customers, as teams sift through what processes to follow (outputs) rather than how to better outcomes for the product. With v1 of the product development flow draft, we've made a shift in the model to better align with best Agile/Lean practices by introducing an activities/outcomes based structure for the content. With this iteration, we help focus product teams on the outcomes each phase should achieve, rather than the outputs. We've also clarified what is required in each phase, so product teams can more quickly understand what is necessary vs. optional, minimizing confusion, inconsistency and waste in the system.
Please note v1 of the product development flow is not yet released to the main product development flow page. It will remain in "preview status" on the [product development flow draft page](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/product-development-flow-draft.html) while it's being dogfooded during 13.6 to minimize workflow disruption across teams as we collect feedback and make improvements.
Related to: #9971 (closed)
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