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Release post: GitLab 11.0

Marcia Ramos requested to merge release-11-0 into master

Review Apps: https://release-11-0.about.gitlab.com/2018/06/22/gitlab-11-0-released/

Release post:

Related files:

Handbook references:

People:

Related issues and MRs:

General Contributions

Due date: 2018-06-14 (6th working day before the 22nd)

All contributions added by team members, collaborators, and Product Managers (PMs).

Author's checklist

Due date: 2018-06-14 (6th working day before the 22nd)

The PM leading the post is responsible for adding and checking the following items:

  • Label MR: ~"blog post" release
  • Assign the MR to yourself
  • Add milestone
  • Update the links and due dates in this MR description
  • Make sure the blog post initial files, as well as this MR template contain the latest templates
  • Add authorship (author's data)
  • Add Introduction
  • Add MVP (feature block)
  • Add MVP to data/mvps.yml
  • Add cover image (image_title) (scaled and compressed)
  • Add social sharing image (twitter_image) (scaled and compressed)
  • Make sure all feature descriptions are positive and cheerful
  • Make sure all the features listed in the direction page are included in the post
  • Mention the release manager to remind them to add the upgrade barometer section
  • Make sure Upgrade barometer is in
  • Check which one is the top feature (with Job and William)
  • Check if deprecations are included
  • Alert people one working day before each due date (post a comment to #release-post Slack channel)
  • Perform the content review
  • Remove remaining template sections
  • Make sure all images (png, jpg, and gifs) are smaller than 300 KB each
  • Run the release post through an automated spell and grammar check
  • Assign the MR to the next reviewer

Recurring blocks

Due date: 2018-06-14 (6th working day before the 22nd)

The following sections are always present, and managed by the PM or Eng lead owning the related area:

  • Add GitLab Runner improvements: Fabio
  • Add Omnibus improvements: Joshua
  • Add Mattermost update to the Omnibus improvements section: Victor
  • Add Performance improvements: Douwe, Sean, Kamil, Tim

Feature blocks

Due date: 2018-06-14 (6th working day before the 22nd)

The Product Managers are responsible for adding their feature blocks to the release post by the due date for general contributions.

PMs: please check your box only when all your features and deprecations were added with completion (documentation links, images, etc). Pls don't check if there are still things missing.

Tip: make your own checklist:

  • Primary features
  • Improvements (secondary features)
  • Deprecations
  • Documentation updated
  • Documentation links added to the post
  • Illustrations added to the post (compressed)
  • Update features.yml (with accompanying screenshots)

Review

Ideally, complete the review until the 4th working day before the 22nd, so that the 3rd and the 2nd working day before the release could be left for fixes and small improvements.

Content review

Due date: 2018-06-20 (2nd working day before the 22nd)

Performed by the author of the post:

  • Label MR: ~"blog post" release review-in-progress
  • Check all comments in the thread (make sure no contribution was left behind)
  • Check Features' names
  • Check Features' availability (Core, Starter, Premium, Ultimate badges)
  • Check Documentation links (all feature blocks contain documentation_link)
  • Make sure documentation_link links to feature webpages when available
  • Update data/promo.yml
  • Features were added to data/features.yml (with accompanying screenshots)
  • Check all images size < 300KB (compress them all with TinyPNG or similar tool)
  • Pull master, resolve any conflicts
  • Make sure all discussions in the thread are resolved

Structural Check

Due date: 2018-06-20 (2nd working day before the 22nd)

Performed by technical writers (Marcia):

    1. Structural check
  • Label MR: ~"blog post" release review-structure
  • Check frontmatter (entries, syntax)
  • Check image_title and twitter_image
  • Check image shadow applied correctly: {image_noshadow: true} when an image already has shadow
  • Videos/iframes wrapped in <figure> tags (responsiveness)
  • Add/check <!-- more --> separator
  • Wrap text
  • Check headers in sentence case
  • Check feature and product names in capital case
  • Check if images are harmonic/consistent
  • Add/check cover img reference (at the end of the post) => standing by for @luke's feedback
  • Columns (content balance between the columns)
  • Meaningful links (SEO)
  • Badges consistency (applied to all headings)
  • Double check documentation updates
  • Check documentation links (point to /ee/, not to /ce/)
  • Check about.gitlab.com links: relative URLs
  • Remove any remaining instructions
  • Remove HTML comments
  • Check the anchors links in the intro
  • Run deadlink checker
  • Pull master
  • Update release template with any changes (if necessary)
  • Lock features.yml on the 21st (experimental)

Further reviews

Due date: 2018-06-20 (2nd working day before the 22nd)

  • Copyedit (Rebecca)
    • Title
    • Description
    • Grammar, spelling, clearness (body)
    • Homepage Blurb
    • Tweet social sharing text (for Twitter, FB, and LinkedIn)

"GitLab 11.0 released with Auto DevOps Generally Available, License Management, SAML SSO for Groups, open source Squash and Merge, and much more! Enjoy 🚀 🎉 🙌"

  • Marketing review (John Jeremiah)
    • Check/copyedit introduction
    • Check/copyedit features
    • Check/copyedit social sharing text
    • Assign the MR back to the author
    • Ping Job for final check

Merge it 🚀

The author of the post is responsible for merging the MR and following up with possible adjustments/fixes.

Last check before merging

  • Check the video in the intro (11.0-specific)
  • Read the important notes below
  • Anchor links in the description are working
  • There are no broken links
  • Pull master and fix any conflicts
  • Check if there isn't any alert on Slack's #release-posts and #general channels
  • Check if there isn't any alert on the MR thread
  • Tweet copy is ready and someone is ready to share on social media
  • Ask the release managers to ping you when the packs are publicly available (and GitLab.com is up and running on the release version)
  • Unlock features.yml (experimental)
  • Make the YT videos to "public" instead of "unlisted"
  • Merge the MR
  • Wait for the pipeline
  • Check the look on social media with Twitter Card Validator and Facebook Debugger
  • Share on social media

Important notes

  • The post is to be merged on the 22nd at 15:00 UTC and as soon as GitLab.com is up and running on the new release version, and all packages are publicly available. Not before.
  • The usual release time is 15:00 UTC but it varies according to the deployment. If something comes up and delays the release, the release post will be delayed with the release.
  • Coordinate the timing with the release managers. Ask them to keep you in the loop.
  • After merging, wait a few minutes to see if no one spot an error (usually posted in #general), then share on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or make sure someone (Emily vH, JJ, Marcia) does.
  • Keep an eye on Slack and in the blog post comments for a few hours to make sure no one found anything that should be fixed
Edited by Marcia Ramos

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