Developer Experience

The Developer Experience section is focused on improving the developer experience to enable all teams to ship high-quality changes

Mission

Accelerate GitLab’s engineering velocity while elevating quality standards by connecting teams, tools, and insights into a cohesive development ecosystem that works for everyone.

Request for Help Process

Create issues to request support via the RFH process below. This will allow us to prioritize requests against our planned project roadmaps.

  • Please follow the instructions in the Request for Help project. Some teams in Developer Experience have their own Request for Help processes. If you are not sure where your request goes, please use the Developer Experience RFH project and we will route appropriately.
  • Complete all sections of the template so we can quickly triage your request
  • Developer Experience will triage the request within a week, adding appropriate labels and assigning team members based on the request type and priority.
  • For more urgent requests please feel free to tag the management team above.

Project Management

All work is tracked in epics and issues. We follow the The Infrastructure Platforms Project Management processes

Starting a new project

Every project starts with an epic. Follow the Infrastructure Platforms epic guide

  • Every project should have a DRI assigned. The DRI is responsible for making decisions, maintainign the epic and issues, and providing the weekly epic status update.
  • We aim to have more than one person working on each project to allow for knowledge sharing. On prorjects with a single thread of work, we can knowledge share by working across timezones. Talk to your EM about the best way for the team to collaborate on work.

Completing a project

After the planned work is completed, follow the Infrastructure Platforms guide to finishing a project

Developer Experience Demos

The DevEx section has internal sync demo calls scheduled for every other week. The goal of the demo calls is to build connections and share knowledge across the entire DevEx grup.

People who want to demo something should add their name to the demo agenda sheet. Demos do not need to be polished or prepared in advance.

Please ping in the DevEx Slack channel if you would like to be added to the invite.

Team Structure

Infrastructure Platforms Department structure is documented in our handbook. |

Developer Experience group structure

graph TD
    DE[Developer Experience group]
    click DE "/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience"

    DE --> AP[API]
    DE --> DA[Development Analytics]
    click DA "/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/development-analytics"
    DE --> DT[Development Tooling]
    click DT "/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/development-tooling"
    DE --> FR[Feature Readiness]
    click FR "/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/feature-readiness"
    DE --> PE[Performance Enablement]
    click PE "/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/performance-enablement"
    DE --> TG[Test Governance]
    click TG "/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/test-governance"

Team Members

Management team

Name Role
Amy PhillipsAmy Phillips Senior Engineering Manager, DevEx
Paul John PhillipsPaul John Phillips Engineering Manager, Development Analytics / Feature Readiness
Mohga GameaMohga Gamea Manager, Quality Engineering
Nadya DenisenkoNadya Denisenko Manager, Engineering
Manager, EngineeringManager, Engineering Manager, Engineering

Teams

API

The following people are members of the API group:

Name Role
Amy PhillipsAmy Phillips Senior Engineering Manager, DevEx
Chance FeickChance Feick Staff Backend Engineer, Developer Experience:API
Max WoolfMax Woolf Staff Backend Engineer, Developer Experience:API
Vlad WolanykVlad Wolanyk Backend Engineer, Developer Experience:API

Development Analytics

The following people are members of the Development Analytics group:

Name Role
Paul John PhillipsPaul John Phillips Engineering Manager, Development Analytics / Feature Readiness
Andrejs CunskisAndrejs Cunskis Senior Software Engineer in Test, Development Analytics
David DieulivolDavid Dieulivol Senior Backend Engineer, Development Analytics
Ievgen ChernikovIevgen Chernikov Senior Software Engineer in Test, Development Analytics
Pranshu SharmaPranshu Sharma Intermediate Backend Engineer, Development Analytics
Lohit PeesapatiLohit Peesapati Intermediate Backend Engineer, Development Analytics

Development Tooling

The following people are members of the Development Tooling group:

Name Role
Mohga GameaMohga Gamea Manager, Quality Engineering
Backend EngineerBackend Engineer Backend Engineer
Manuel SchönlaubManuel Schönlaub Backend Engineer
Kev KlossKev Kloss Frontend Engineer
Matias AlvarezMatias Alvarez Backend Engineer
Nao HashizumeNao Hashizume Backend Engineer
Peter LeitzenPeter Leitzen Staff Backend Engineer, Engineering Productivity

Feature Readiness

The following people are members of the Feature Readiness group:

Name Role
Paul John PhillipsPaul John Phillips Engineering Manager, Development Analytics / Feature Readiness
Alberto BignottiAlberto Bignotti Backend Engineer Developer Experience, Feature Readiness
Richard ChongRichard Chong Senior Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience:Feature Readiness
Sofia VistasSofia Vistas Senior Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience, Feature Readiness

Performance Enablement

The following people are members of the Performance Enablement group:

Name Role
Manager, EngineeringManager, Engineering Manager, Engineering
Andy HohennerAndy Hohenner Senior Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience, Performance Enablement
Brittany WilkersonBrittany Wilkerson Senior Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience, Performance Enablement
John McDonnellJohn McDonnell Senior Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience, Performance Enablement
Nivetha PrabakaranNivetha Prabakaran Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience, Performance Enablement
Vishal PatelVishal Patel Software Engineer in Test, Developer Experience, Performance Enablement

Test Governance

The following people are members of the Test Governance group:

Name Role
Nadya DenisenkoNadya Denisenko Manager, Engineering
Désirée ChevalierDésirée Chevalier Senior Software Engineer in Test, Test Governance
Joy RoodnickJoy Roodnick Software Engineer in Test", Test Governance
Will MeekWill Meek Senior Software Engineer in Test, Test Governance

API team
The API team enables GitLab contributors to efficiently build and maintain APIs that are discoverable and stable for customers
Bug Prioritization
This page describes the bug prioritization process performed by the quality engineering sub-department as part of the cross-functional prioritization process.
Developer Experience Dashboards
This handbook page serves as a central repository for all our Developer Experience dashboard details
Developer Experience Design Documents
A design document describes a technical vision and a set of principles that will guide various …
Developer Experience Onboarding
Guidelines for onboarding as a new Developer Experience Stage member
Development Analytics Group
Development Analytics Group under Developer Experience Stage
Development Tooling team
The Development Tooling team enables all GitLab contributors to efficiently deliver results for customers by providing stable and performant software development tools, such as the GitLab Development Kit.
Feature Readiness
Feature Readiness group within Developer Experience sub-department
Performance Enablement
Performance Enablement group within Developer Experience sub-department
Test Governance Group
Test Governance Group under Developer Experience Stage