16.2 Pipeline Authoring retrospective

This is an asynchronous retrospective for the 16.2 release, following the process described in the handbook.

This issue is private (confidential) to the Pipeline Authoring group, plus anyone else who worked with the group during 16.2, to ensure everyone feels comfortable sharing freely. On 2023-07-26, in preparation for the R&D-wide 16.2 Retrospective, the issue will be opened up to the public, as long as everyone is comfortable with this. You're free to redact any comments that contain information that you'd like to stay private before that date.

Please look at back at your experiences working on this release, ask yourself 🌟 what praise do you have for the group?, 👍 what went well this release?, 👎 what didn’t go well this release?, and 📈 what can we improve going forward?, and honestly describe your thoughts and feelings below.

For each point you want to raise, please create a new discussion with the relevant emoji, so that others can weigh in with their perspectives, and so that we can easily discuss any follow-up action items in-line.

If there is anything you are not comfortable sharing here, please message your manager directly. Note, however, that 'Emotions are not only allowed in retrospectives, they should be encouraged', so we'd love to hear from you here if possible.

Issues we shipped

Deliverables (closed issues with ~Deliverable label for 16.2 milestone):

1. Frontend: Add feature test for Pipeline Editor tabs and linting
2. Backend: Add GraphQL CiCatalogResource field latest_version to replace versions when fetching multiple resources

All closed issues (within 16.2 milestone)

Issues that slipped

1. [Feature flag] Rollout of ci_refactoring_pipeline_schedule_create_service
2. Follow-up from "Move interpolation into Ci::Yaml::Loader"
3. Backend/Frontend: Add mergeRequests and issues to CiCatalogResource resolve
4. Notify project administrators when there is an update in the components
5. Backend: Create catalog_resource_versions table
6. Frontend: Add feature test for Pipeline Editor in empty state and when setting new source branch
7. Backend: Update permissions for namespace catalog & update resolver
8. [Feature flag] Enable parallel importing for Bitbucket Server
9. Backend: Search for components within the CI Catalog Part 2
10. Backend: Allow predefined manipulations in CI config interpolation - part 1
11. Trigger pipeline location resolves incorrectly in when includeed
12. Document how to convert existing templates to CI components
13. Backend: Add ci_max_total_yaml_size_bytes as application setting
14. Rollout ci_namespace_catalog_experimental FF
15. Visibility into where component are used
16. Backend: Expand include:component to load locally defined components
17. [Dogfood] Convert some existing templates to components
18. Backend: Input type validation - type (1/2)
19. Architecture blueprint for GitLab CI CLI- local pipeline execution
20. [Feature flag] Rollout of export_csv_preload_in_batches
21. The default value for rules:changes:compare_to
22. Doc Update to support the GA release for OIDC
23. Frontend: Job updates in pipeline mini graph dropdown
24. Frontend: Pass dropdown_path of a pipeline stage through GraphQL
25. Backend: Allow needs to use the parallel keyword

• Total deliverables closed: 2
• Total issues closed: 21
• Total MRs merged: 49

Retro Owners - please remember to follow this checklist before closing this retrospective

• Redact any personal information
• Make issue public (turn confidential off)
• Run /assign @gitlab-com/pipeline-authoring-group in new retro to assign to everyone