Merge Requests

As part of our software delivery process, we do pull- or merge requests. These are reviewed before being merged to the main branch and checked for compliance with our definition of done.

This small merge-request guide describes succinctly how we should create an MR and how we do a so-called MR review.

  1. Decide if this is a standard (default) or basic MR. A standard MR is intended for regular work, always has a related issue ticket and is checked for various aspects documented in our definition of done. A basic MR is for quick fixes and/or forgotten things and does not always have a related issue ticket, and is checked only for unwanted content in commits and for technical debt TODO issues.

  2. When you’ve chosen the MR type, a template text body will be inserted. Here you link the related issue ticket (if it’s a standard MR) and insert a short description. Note that a full description, with other important information like implementation decisions and context for code changes should be part of the related issue ticket. A basic MR should not require extensive explanation.

  3. In some cases, one or more of the specifically to-be-checkmarked items is not applicable to this MR. To assist the reviewer, you can use ~~strikethrough~~ on a list item below to indicate that that specific item is not relevant to this MR (i.e., don’t delete the line, but use strikethrough instead).

  4. As the assignee of the MR, you implement the work in accordance with the definition of done; as a reviewer of the MR, you verify that such is the case.