Merge branch 'docs-scoped-maintainership-build' into 'master'

Add doc about scoped maintainership for Build

See merge request https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/merge_requests/7246

Merged-by: Robert Marshall <[email protected]>
Approved-by: Robert Marshall <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Balasankar 'Balu' C <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Robert Marshall <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Balasankar "Balu" C <[email protected]>

Author: Robert Marshall

doc/development/maintainership.md

@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+---
+stage: Systems
+group: Distribution
+info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
+---
+
+# Maintainership
+
+## Scoped Maintainership
+
+`omnibus-gitlab` is a comparatively complex project that handles both software
+builds and deployment.
+
+The build aspect covers the build toolchain, CI infrastructure, and dependency
+management. The deployment aspect covers the installation and configuration of
+GitLab at the user site along with upgrade tasks.
+
+Because the two aspects are very different both in nature and the technical
+stack involved, trainee-maintainers must spend a large amount of time to gain
+both sets of competencies. Scoped maintainership decreases the time required
+to onboard a new maintainer through separation of these core responsibilities.
+
+### Build scope
+
+The build scope covers all the parts of the codebase that build the artifacts
+used to ship Omnibus GitLab.
+
+This includes:
+
+1. Omnibus project configurations and component software definitions.
+1. Patches used in software definitions.
+1. Libraries and Rake tasks used for build, release, and other maintenance
+   activities.
+1. CI configuration used for build, release, and other maintenance activities.
+1. Infrastructure management required for the above.
+
+Ideally, a build-scoped maintainer of `omnibus-gitlab` should be
+well versed in all the above-mentioned topics. Several of these areas
+get infrequent updates, therefore it is not fair to expect trainee-maintainers
+to work on all of them. The following checklist provides a guideline to evaluate
+the progress of a trainee-maintainer in the build scope.
+
+NOTE:
+We do not differentiate between the trainee-maintainer as the author
+or reviewer in this list because `omnibus-gitlab` is a relatively stable
+and mature project. The majority of merge requests follow established
+patterns and only need to pass a set of well known tests that prove
+the changes work as expected.
+
+1. Author or review merge requests which update any 3 components from the list below that
+   support high availability. The trainee-maintainer should gain familiarity with complex
+   deployment scenarios and how to test them.
+
+     1. PostgreSQL
+     1. Patroni
+     1. PgBouncer
+     1. Consul
+     1. Redis
+     1. Sentinel
+
+1. Author or review a merge request which updates any of our "runtime" environments, preferably
+   Ruby/Go. This ensures familiarity with the
+   [Omnibus Builder](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-omnibus-builder)
+   project and how it relates to `omnibus-gitlab`.
+
+     1. Ruby
+     1. Go
+     1. Python
+
+1. Author or review a Mattermost version update merge request. Ensures familiarity with its update
+   process and Distribution team's communication process with the Mattermost team.
+
+1. Author or review merge requests which update 5 other components.
+
+1. Author or review 3 merge requests which modify CI configuration.
+
+1. Author or review 3 merge requests which refactor build related code.
+
+1. **OPTIONAL**: Author or review 1 merge request which modifies the `omnibus` project. This
+   is an optional requirement , because updates to `omnibus` itself are
+   comparatively rare. It is highly recommended that the Maintainers look through
+   the commits we have [added on top of the upstream tag](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus/-/compare/9.0.19...9.0.19-stable).
+
+### Deploy scope
+
+TBA
+
+### Architectural changes
+
+Architectural changes to `omnibus-gitlab` project, as well as the `omnibus`
+project require sign-off from current full maintainers of the project.