Professional Services Team Handbook

The Professional Services team at GitLab is a part of the Customer Success department helping customers achieve value faster.

The Professional Services team at GitLab is a part of the Customer Success department.

Quick links

Here are links to the most popular Professional Services topics.

Team functions

The Professional Services team is organized according to specialized functions and responsibilities. Click a Function link below to access details for specific team workflows and responsibilities.

Function	Responsibilities
Delivery	Service delivery planning and execution through specialized engineering team members
Engagement Management	Opportunity and SOW scoping and closing in collaboration with GitLab Sales team members
Instructional Design and Development	Educational content creation, deployment, and maintenance
Practice Management	Definition, planning, go-to-market, and performance for specific categories of professional services offerings
Project Management	Project planning and execution
Professional Services Operations	Project Coordination, scheduling, and backend processes
Professional Services Technical Architect	Team technical leadership, project quality and technical escalations

Direction

Mission

GitLab Professional Services enables customers and partners to realize the full value of GitLab solutions to increase operational efficiencies, deliver better products faster, and reduce security and compliance risks.

Goals

Measure benefits of Professional Services’ contributions to product growth, adoption, retention, and time-to-value to drive internal stakeholders (Sales, Product, CS), external customers and partner success
Predictably meet or exceed company financial performance goals for Professional Services through services delivery by overachieving project goals while maintaining project profitability targets
Increase market opportunities and delivery elasticity by expanding to a partner-leveraged delivery model in order to reach more customers
Ensure high-quality service delivery for GitLab direct and partner delivered services

Value of Professional Services

With PS engagement, customers start leveraging the full capabilities of GitLab earlier with improved proficiency, reduced risk, and increased competitive advantage.
When engaging with Professional Services, customers adopt at higher rates in both stage expansion and active user growth.
Partners benefit from GitLab PS expertise, advocacy and credibility to help grow their business practice while helping improve customer success, and increase ARR.

GitLab Professional Services Methodology

GitLab Professional Services offerings sold and scoped by the PS Engagement Management team in partnership with the GitLab Account teams. Services are delivered directly by GitLab team members or by partners. We are building out the partner selling and delivery process to:

Ensure we have local coverage globally
Scale professional services in alignment with GitLab business growth
Create a partner revenue stream

Team Members

Check out the professional services team page

Team metrics

GitLab Professional Services measures success through tracking business profitability and resource utilization. The targets for FY21 are as follows.

Long term profitability target: 30% gross margin
Project Manager, Program Manager and Engineer Utilization targets: 70% billable hours
Technical Architect Utilization target: 55% billable hours
Trainers: FY25Q1 & FY25Q2- 60% billable hours, FY25Q3- 65% billable hours and FY25Q4- 70% billable hours
Billable utilization is time worked on defined scope that will be charged to a customer according to a contractual SOW.

We use the following definitions to determine and track utilization.

Metric	Formula/Description	Value
Utilization	(Working Hours ÷ Available Hours) × 100%	varies
Billable Utilization	(Billable Working Hours ÷ Utilization) × 100%	varies
Holiday Hours	11 holidays × 8 hrs/day	88 hrs
PTO + F&F Hours	28 PTO days + 4 F&F × 8 hrs/day	256 hrs
Summit	5 Summit - SKO days × 8 hrs/day	40 hrs
Non-Working Hours	(Holiday Hours + PTO Hours + Training Hours)	384 hrs
Total Weekday Hours	(8 Hours × 5 days × 52 weeks)	2080 hrs
Available Hours	Total Weekday Hours － Non-Working Hours	1696 hrs
Quarterly Hour Total	Total Available Hours / 4	424 hrs
Program/Project Manager, Engineer Quarterly Target	Quarterly Hour Total * .7	296.8 hrs
Technical Architect	Quarterly Hour Total * .55	233.2 hrs

What is a billable hour?

In simplest terms, any work done on behalf of advancing the customer engagement is considered “billable time”. This includes white board time, research into features or tools, and discussion with other internal GitLab engineering teams.

When in doubt, consult with the Program/Project Manager assigned or a Delivery Manager for guidance. For specific tools enablement, engineers should log time against the engagement, uncheck the “Billable” box for the time entry (in Kantata), and add a note to explain the work.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) This performance indicator measures how satisfied our customers are with their interaction with the GitLab PS team. This is based on survey responses from customers sent at the end of each engagement. On a scale of 1-5, if the customer submits a 4 or 5, we consider this Customer to be Satisfied with the services delivered.

Professional Services offerings

GitLab offers a full catalog of professional services including implementation, migration, and education delivered by GitLab experts. Click the links to learn more about our framework and for a detailed listing of our standard SKU offerings.

Working with Professional Services

Follow these guidelines for contacting us and ordering Professional Services.

Developing Software for Professional Services

Discover how professional services develops software.

GitLab Certified Migration Services Engineer

How GitLab Professional Services validates engineering readiness to deliver Migration Services

GitLab Certified Trainer Program

Explore how GitLab Professional Services certifies trainers to validate their readiness to deliver Education Services offerings.

GitLab Professional Education Services

Technical Learning and Certification from GitLab Professional Services

GitLab Technical Certifications

Explore how GitLab Professional Services certifies engineers to validate their readiness to deliver Consulting Services offerings.

Partner Collaboration

Learn how the GitLab Professional Services organization collaborates with Partners.

Positioning Professional Services

Where to position PS in the Customer Journey

Most professional service engagements happen during the onboarding, implementation, and adoption phases of the customer journey.

GitLab Customer Journey

When opportunities are approaching closed/won and planning for these stages is occurring, its a good idea to consider bringing in professional services to help expedite the customer’s transition to using GitLab to enable them to realize value faster.

This page aims to help the ISR/SAE understand the services that certain types of customers typically engage in and how to position those services when building out a success plan.

Professional Service Operations

Learn about the GitLab Professional Services operations processes and workflows.

Professional Services Delivery Methodology

Learn the processes and methodology that GitLab Professional Services uses to help ensure Customer Success.

Professional Services Engagement Management

Describes the workflow and responsibilities of the GitLab Professional Services Engagement Manager.

Professional Services Engineering Workflows

Project Process

Manager, Professional Services: Once an SOW has been approved and moved for Closed Won, assign a Professional Services Engineer.
Manager, Professional Services: Send welcome e-mail
Professional Services Engineer: Begins project with processes defined here.
- Kick-off
- Intake for AWS or on-prem
- On-going project calls (external)
- On-going internal project updates
- Change request when required for scope changes
- Project Summary
Professional Services Engineer: Starts financial wrap-up process.
Manager, Professional Services: Schedule blameless post-mortem.

Quote to Sign-off Process

This is an overview of the entire process for a services engagement from discovery of the customer’s needs to the sign-off from the customer.

Professional Services Instructional Design and Development

Discover how the GitLab Instructional Design and Development team works together.

Professional Services Offerings

Find information about GitLab Professional services Offerings.

Professional Services Offerings Framework

Discover the various GitLab Professional Service Offerings and how they're organized into Categories and Types.

Professional Services Practice Management

Discover how the GitLab Practice Management team works together.

Professional Services Project Management

Learn about the processes that the GitLab Project Management team uses to deliver successful engagements with Customers.

Professional Services Remote Training Session Setup and Reporting

Explore how a GitLab Professional Services team members can setup and deliver a remote training.

Professional Services Technical Architect

Who We Are

The Professional Services Technical Architect (TA) team at GitLab consists of highly skilled experts responsible for providing technical leadership, presales support, delivery oversight, and fostering collaboration across functional roles. With deep knowledge of GitLab’s platform, DevOps practices, and industry best practices, we work closely with customers to understand their unique challenges and provide tailored solutions aligned with their business goals. Our team bridges the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders ensuring clear communication and alignment throughout the scoping process and engagements. We continuously seek ways to improve our services, deliver exceptional value, and enable customers to maximize the benefits of the GitLab platform for their DevOps transformation Journey.

A Note on Partner Professional Services

Please remember to follow the Rules of Engagement for Selling Professional Services with the following highlights:

Always start by finding out if your customer/prospect has a qualified and preferred professional services partner and start by engaging with that partner to explore a solution for your customer/prospect
SMB clients are welcome to purchase SKU offerings. Please route all custom SMB needs through professional services Channel Partners as outlined in the ROE. Please see additional detail in the FAQ below.
Remember to update the SFDC Professional Services Opportunity to “closed lost” if for any reason after you have created a GitLab Professional Services Opportunity in SFDC the work is transitioned to being sold and delivered by a partner. Then make sure that any Services Attach Registration that the partner registers for that work is attached to the relevant Licensing Opportunity in SFDC. Please work with the Channel Account Manager for the partner (found in SFDC account for the partner) if you have any questions about this process.

Workflow for GitLab selling Professional Services

There are 4 main steps for selling GitLab Professional Services:

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