Tech Stack Applications

Instructions for how to access the GitLab tech stack and request updates to it

Definition and Access

Note: Use the Tech Stack Index to browse Tech Stack Apps.

The Tech Stack is a list of all the technology that GitLab currently uses to support the business. The Tech Stack lists systems/applications/tools/data used by all departments and details the business purpose/description, the owners, the provisioners, the teams that access the tool and other details.

The historical spreadsheets (deprecated on 2020-10-16 and 2021-03-03) can be found here. Both are protected in case they are needed in future audits. Only Editors of the file (currently the BSAs and Team Member Enablement team) can unhide and unprotect the spreadsheets in case it is needed.

Roles and Responsibilities

Role Responsibilities
Business and Technical Owners of Systems Accountable for completeness and accuracy of Tech Stack data; Process Tech Stack updates; Primary contacts for system-related inquiries and administration.
IT Business Technology Code Owners of Tech Stack; Advise Business and Technical Owners in supporting systems.
Security Risk Help facilitate Tech Stack updates, including the Business Impact Analysis for new and existing systems.

Tech Stack Definitions

  • Business Owner: The Business Owner is the individual(s) responsible for all budget and decision making around the tool. They should define how the tool is used and by whom. This person(s) usually has login access to the tool as Owner but login access isn’t necessary in all cases. Please make sure you list individual people in this field, rather than teams.
  • Technical Owner: This may be the same as the Business Owner based on the nature of the system, for instance, if the system isn’t centrally managed and or/requires little to no configuration. For systems that are centrally managed and/or heavily configured, the Technical Owner is someone with understanding of the application’s architecture, functionality (including types of data involved), and overall criticality/impact to GitLab. Technical Owner(s) are typically administrators of a tool. This includes everyone with the administrative clearance to provision and deprovision access of a tool and/or as the technical expertise needed to manage it.
  • Provisioner/Deprovisioner: People in charge of granting and removing team member access to a tool. At least two provisioners/deprovisioners should be named for every tool in the handbook. Provisioners can be contacted as a group in Slack using the @provisioners handle and in GitLab using the @tech-stack-provisioner handle.

Tech Stack Updates

We recommend using the Web IDE for Tech Stack Updates as we have a JSON Schema that will automatically validate your changes.

There are three main reasons you would want to change our Tech Stack:

What data lives in the Tech Stack?

Please ensure that whenever you update the tech stack, you follow the instructions below and use the right type of data in each field.

Field Type of data Instructions Responsible for filling out information
title Text The name of the system you are adding to the tech stack. Please enter the full and correct brand name associated with the tool. Example: “Zendesk, not ZenDesk.” MR Author and contributors
team_member_baseline_entitlement Boolean* A baseline entitlement is a system that ALL GitLab Team Members get access to. Example: “Zoom”. Most systems in our Tech Stack are not baseline entitlements. MR Author and contributors
description Text/Markdown Business Purpose of the system. Please add links to handbook pages or websites that can provide people with more information on what the system is used for. Example: “ContractWorks is a contract managing software. This process is used to file contract or related vendor documents after they are fully executed.” MR Author and contributors
access_to Text Define which individuals or teams need access to this system. Example: Strategic Marketing and Product Managers MR Author and contributors
provisioner Text in single quotes, GitLab Username Add the username of the people in charge of provisioning access to this system, separated by commas. We require at least 2 people to be listed as provisioners of a tool. Example: ‘@username, @username1’ MR Author and contributors
deprovisioner Text in single quotes, GitLab Username Add the username of the people in charge of removing access to this system, separated by commas. We require at least 2 people to be listed as deprovisioners of a tool. Team members can serve as both provisioners and deprovisioners of a tool. Example: ‘@username, @username1’ MR Author and contributors
group_owner Text Add the group owner of the tool (team/department/function). Example: Infrastructure MR Author and contributors
group_owner_slack_channel Text Add the Slack channel where the group owner can be reached out for help. Example: #infrastructure-lounge MR Author and contributors
business_owner Text The Business Owner is the individual(s) responsible for all budget and decision making around the tool. They should define how the tool is used and by whom. This person(s) usually has login access to the tool as Owner but login access isn’t necessary in all cases. Please make sure you list individual people in this field, rather than teams. Example: Jane Doe, John Doe MR Author and contributors
technical_owner Text The Technical Owner(s) all the administrators of a tool. This includes everyone with the administrative clearance to provision and deprovision access of a tool and/or as the technical expertise needed to manage it. Example: Jane Doe, John Doe. See guidance above for instances where a system does not require/have an administrator function MR Author and contributors
data_classification Text (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green) or Unknown** Decided upon by the Security team, please leave as null while this process is completed. More information on Data Classification Standards. Security Risk
authentication_method Text (Okta SWA, Okta SAML, ID and password, other) or Unknown** Authentication method used to access the system. It can be SWA, SAML or other such as direct access (email and password login). MR Author and contributors
critical_systems_tier Text (Tier 1 Mission Critical, Tier 2 Business Critical, Tier 3 Business Operational, Tier 4 Administrative, TBD) or Unknown** This field classifies the system based on GitLab’s Critical System Tier Definitions. The assignment of a critical system tier is dependent on the completion of a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) questionnaire. The Security Risk Team will coordinate the completion of a BIA if it has not yet been completed at the time a system is being added to the Tech Stack. Security Risk
collected_data Text or Unknown** Data that is collected by the tool MR Author and contributors
employee_or_customer_facing_app Text (employee, customer) If access is limited to GitLab team members, then please add the employee word. If access can be granted to external parties, then add customer MR Author and contributors
notes Text or Unknown** Additional relevant information about the system that is not captured in any other field. Examples include the GitLab Epic for implementation and rollout. Optional, MR Author and contributors
handbook_link Text/Markdown or Unknown** Link to the Tech Stack Guide handbook page that includes function and system information. Example: “The Marketing handbook contains the Marketo Tech Stack Guide.” Optional, MR Author and contributors
external_link Text/Markdown or Unknown** Link to the app’s primary website. Example: “ContractWorks” Optional, MR Author and contributors
google_group Text or Unknown** Google group being used to manage access to the systems through Okta Optional, MR Author and contributors
  • *For Booleans, you need to type out either true or false.
  • **Unknown: If information is unknown, please don’t leave the field empty, type null instead.

Add new system to the tech stack

We recommend using the Web IDE for Tech Stack Updates as we have a JSON Schema that will automatically validate your changes.

To add a new system to the tech stack, you must start a merge request in the tech stack yml file and follow the steps below.

Step 1

Copy the content below (including the - before title) and please add your system to the stack in its appropriate alphabetical placement. Make sure you fill out anything that the ‘MR Author and contributors’ are responsible for according to Tech Stack Data section. Make sure to use the correct data type for each required field.

- title:
  team_member_baseline_entitlement:
  description:
  access_to:
  provisioner:
  deprovisioner:
  group_owner:
  group_owner_slack_channel:
  business_owner:
  technical_owner:
  data_classification:
  authentication_method:
  critical_systems_tier: null
  collected_data: null
  employee_or_customer_facing_app:
  notes: null
  handbook_link: null
  external_link:
  google_group: null

Step 2

Submit MR and select the template tech-stack-add-new-system.md. Fill out all the information required in the description.

Step 3

The Legal, IT Compliance, Internal Audit, Security Risk, and Business Systems team will be automatically cc’d in the MR when you use the correct template. These teams will review and update the MR by filling out the missing fields relevant to their teams. Once it is all done, the Business Systems Analysts will merge.

Update Tech Stack Information

We recommend using the Web IDE for Tech Stack Updates as we have a JSON Schema that will automatically validate your changes.

To update any system information listed in the Tech Stack, you must start a merge request in the tech stack yml file. Please use the tech-stack-update-existing-system.md template when submitting your MR and follow the instructions in the template. Ensure to update the information following the instructions in the Tech Stack Data section.

Removing a system from the Tech Stack

Occasionally systems listed in our tech stack will be deprecated. If a system is being offboarded (no longer being used and/or being replaced), please create an MR in the tech stack yml file to remove the entry for the tool (DON’T MERGE IT), and then create an issue following this template. Once the issue has been submitted, link the MR in the comments. The Business Owner will need to work with Legal and IT Compliance to ensure that the data deletion process is being completed as outlined in the vendor contract regarding their process and responsibilities.

Access Requests

Please review our Access Requests handbook page to find more information on how to request access to systems. Choose the right template for your use case and follow the instructions.

Procurement

Do you want to procure a new application/system? Visit the Procurement handbook page to find out more information on how to get started. Only applications which go through this process can be added to the tech stack.

Support

Are you experiencing issues with an application/system? Visit our Tech Stack YAML and under Group Owner/Slack Channel, you can find out what Slack channel you need to reach out to request support.

Compliance

Many applications listed in the Tech Stack are in-scope for regulatory or other compliance activities. For more information please reach out to the DRIs listed below:

  • FedRAMP: Corey Oas (@corey-oas), Security Compliance
  • GitLab SaaS SOC2: Liz Coleman (@lcoleman), Security Compliance
  • GitLab Dedicated SOC2: Corey Oas (@corey-oas), Security Compliance
  • ISO 27001: Liz Coleman (@lcoleman), Security Compliance
  • SOX: Sean Brown (@sbrown10), Internal Audit

Updating the Offboarding Templates

The offboarding templates need to be updated when a new system is added to the Tech Stack in order for GitLab to be compliant and remove Team Members from systems once they leave GitLab. There are two different ways to update the offboarding templates. Pick the option which best suits the usage of the new system. Once the MR is ready to be merged, tag the People Connect team - @gl-people-connect-team - for approval and merge.

Option 1: New system used by all/many Team Members, across multiple departments

Update the main Team Member Offboarding template.

The main template is divided into two sections. The first section is the Offboarding Tasks section. This section is applicable to all GitLab Team Members and is performed by the Manager, People, Business Technology, and Finance/Accounting teams.

The second section is the Tech Stack System Deprovisioning / Offboarding section. Update this section with the new system being added to the Tech Stack. Use the format below to make the update:

## Department that owns the new system. If new system is owned by multiple departments, list the department the main deprovisioner belongs to. Please make sure the department does not already exist within the template. If it does, ignore this header and just add the following information underneath the existing department header

#### <summary>Name of deprovisioner @usernameofdeprovisioner, Name of deprovisioner 2 @usernameofdeprovisioner2, etc. </summary>

<table >
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td> `System name`  </td>
   <td>

- [ ] Access Deprovisioned - System name
- [ ] Not Applicable to Team Member - System name

</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

When finished, link the MR in the “Access Tasks” section of the ‘Tech Stack - Add New System’ MR.

Option 2: New system used by a limited number of Team Members, all in SAME department

Update the department-level Offboarding template within this directory.

Using the link above, locate the template of the department owning the new system and update it. Example: If only the Security team will have access to a new system, locate the Security template and add the new system to that template following this format:

- [ ] @usernameofdeprovisioner @usernameofdeprovisioner2: Remove the team member from System name

When finished, link the MR in the “Access Tasks” section of the ‘Tech Stack - Add New System’ MR.

Exceptions

There are exceptions to adding technologies to the Tech Stack which are handled on a case-by-case basis.

Last modified October 29, 2024: Fix broken links (455376ee)
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