17.1 Pipeline Authoring retrospective

This is an asynchronous retrospective for the 17.1 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 17.1, to ensure everyone feels comfortable sharing freely. On 2024-06-26, 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 17.1 milestone):

1. Spike: Investigate use of markdown in catalog p... (gitlab-org/gitlab#460533 - closed)
2. Backend: Move from YamlProcessor::FeatureFlags ... (gitlab-org/gitlab#457172 - closed)
3. Create and normalize ci_build_execution_config ... (gitlab-org/gitlab#453957 - closed)
4. Backend: GraphQL API to allow service object to... (gitlab-org/gitlab#451509 - closed)
5. Backend: ReDoS in CI interpolation (fix bypass) (gitlab-org/gitlab#442695 - closed)
6. Backend: Wrong join on Ci::Processable.not_inte... (gitlab-org/gitlab#436385 - closed)
7. Backend: Improve GET Bridges API performance (gitlab-org/gitlab#435069 - closed)

All closed issues (within 17.1 milestone)

Issues that slipped

1. Add support for a job-level `run` keyword (gitlab-org/gitlab#440487 - closed)

• Total deliverables closed: 7
• Total issues closed: 48
• Total MRs merged: 70

Value Stream Analytics

Visualize the key metrics for the release by reviewing the Value Stream Analytics (VSA).

• VSA for this release
• It would be great to get your ~dogfooding feedback on VSA. Give it a try and leave your comments in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/plan-stage/product/-/issues/27.
• Known issues & feature gaps

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