The primary goal of the Technical Writing team is to continuously develop GitLab's product documentation content to meet the evolving needs of all users and administrators.
Documentation is intended to educate readers about features and best practices, and to enable them to efficiently configure, use, and troubleshoot GitLab. To this end, the team also manages the docs.gitlab.com site and related process and tooling.
Our team comprises:
Technical writers partner with anyone in the GitLab community who is concerned with documentation, especially developers, who are typically the first to update docs for the GitLab features that they code.
The technical writing team Slack channel is #docs-team and technical writers are also active in the larger #docs channel (both private to GitLab Inc.).
Technical writers:
For more information on documentation at GitLab, see:
The team is broadly responsible for the following at GitLab.
Documentation Site (docs.gitlab.com) including maintaining and enhancing the documentation site’s:
Documentation Process, including:
Collaboration, including:
This work is sorted into the top-level Documentation epics linked above.
Technical writers (aka "TWs" or "docs team") are assigned to and collaborate with other teams and groups as described in the DevOps stages and other subjects according to the tables below.
The designated technical writer is the go-to person for their assigned stage groups. They collaborate with other team members to plan new documentation, edit existing documentation, review any proposed changes to documentation, suggest changes to the microcopy exposed to the end-user, and generally partner with subject-matter experts in all situations where documentation is required.
The backup writer is assigned to cover merge request reviews and urgent matters for the designated tech writer when they are out (vacations, sickness, and any other temporary leave). They can also naturally pair to work together on complex issues when needed.
Section | Stage | Group | Technical writer | Backup |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dev | Manage | Access | Evan Read | --- |
Dev | Manage | Compliance | Evan Read | --- |
Dev | Manage | Import | Evan Read | --- |
Dev | Manage | Analytics | Evan Read | --- |
Dev | Plan | Project Management | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Dev | Plan | Portfolio Management | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Dev | Plan | Certify | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Dev | Create | Source Code | Marcia Ramos | --- |
Dev | Create | Knowledge | Marcia Ramos | --- |
Dev | Create | Static Site Editor | Marcia Ramos | --- |
Dev | Create | Editor | Marcia Ramos | --- |
Dev | Create | Gitaly | Axil | --- |
Dev | Create | Gitter | Axil | --- |
CI/CD | Verify | Continuous Integration | Marcel Amirault | --- |
CI/CD | Verify | Runner | Marcel Amirault | --- |
CI/CD | Verify | Testing | Marcel Amirault | --- |
CI/CD | Package | Package | Axil | --- |
Secure | Secure | Static Analysis | Axil | --- |
Secure | Secure | Dynamic Analysis | Axil | --- |
Secure | Secure | Composition Analysis | Axil | --- |
Secure | Secure | Attack Surface | Axil | --- |
CI/CD | Release | Progressive Delivery | Marcia Ramos | --- |
CI/CD | Release | Release Management | Marcia Ramos | --- |
Ops | Configure | Orchestration | Evan Read | --- |
Ops | Configure | System | Evan Read | --- |
Ops | Monitor | APM | Axil | --- |
Ops | Monitor | Health | Axil | --- |
Defend | Defend | Runtime Application Security | Axil | --- |
Defend | Defend | Threat Management | Axil | --- |
Defend | Defend | Application Infrastructure Security | Axil | --- |
Defend | Defend | Anomaly Detection | Axil | --- |
Growth | Growth | Acquisition | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Growth | Growth | Conversion | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Growth | Growth | Expansion | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Growth | Growth | Retention | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Growth | Growth | Fulfillment | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Growth | Growth | Telemetry | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Enablement | Enablement | Distribution | Axil | --- |
Enablement | Enablement | Geo | Evan Read | --- |
Enablement | Enablement | Memory | Mike Lewis | --- |
Enablement | Enablement | Ecosystem | Mike Lewis | --- |
Enablement | Enablement | Search | Russell Dickenson | --- |
Enablement | Enablement | Database | --- | --- |
For collaboration in other projects and subjects:
Subject | Technical writer | Backup |
---|---|---|
Development guidelines | Marcia Ramos | TBA |
Subscriptions | TBA | TBA |
GitLab Docs - frontend | Marcia Ramos | TBA |
GitLab Docs - backend | Axil | TBA |
GitLab Omnibus | Axil | TBA |
GitLab Charts | Axil | TBA |
GitLab Runner | Marcel Amirault | Evan Read |
GitLab Development Kit (GDK) | Evan Read | TBA |
GitLab Pages Daemon | TBA | TBA |
GitLab Pages Examples | Axil | TBA |
Applications/Partners | Marcia Ramos | TBA |
Technical writing handbook | Mike Lewis | |
Other | Mike Lewis |
While the technical writer is onboarding, they will be assigned to shadow groups and then start contributing as trainees, as described below. Veteran technical writers will coach them through the process.
To consult the current assignments, see the onboarding technical writers spreadsheet.
Group shadowing
For the first release cycle that begins after the new member start
date, they will shadow (read) their buddy's work in their most active
Stage Group, plus one other stage group/writer decided with the
tech writing manager and the team. Veteran technical writers will
proactively share relevant issues, merge requests, and communications
with their shadows by using a #tw-onboarding-<groupname>
Slack channel, creating it if it doesn't already exist, and answering questions.
Group trainees
For the second release cycle that begins after the new member's start date, unless the tech writing manager extends the shadowing phase, they will act as a trainee on a single Group as assigned by the manager. The intent is to take on the group as its technical writer as of the next release. The veteran technical writer who is assigned to that Group will assign substantial parts of the work to the new member for this group, which accounts to roughly half of the groups's reviews of MRs with docs, UI text, and release post content; a small but substantial documentation authoring project; a few minor doc improvement projects/fixes.
Group coaching
For the third release cycle, the onboarding tech writer assumes the full role of technical writer for their assigned group, except that the former TW assigned to the group is now the coach, who will review all their work (including reviews they perform of other authors) before it is merged. They may share the burden of these reviews with other technical writers.
Technical writers are assigned for merge request reviews (of both team members and community contributors) according to the stage groups they are assigned.
See: