#3 Team Onboarding Guide for RollingVersions

This guide is designed to help you onboard your team members effectively, ensuring they are familiar with the tool, understand their roles, and can contribute to your versioning and release process seamlessly.

Step 1: Introduce RollingVersions to Your Team

Key Benefits for Team Members:

• Developers: Automate changelogs and version management, allowing more time for coding.
• QA Teams: Ensure all changes are clearly documented, reducing confusion during testing.
• Project Managers: Gain visibility into upcoming releases with a clear timeline of changes.
• Leadership: Reduce operational waste by standardizing and automating release workflows.

Communication Resources

• Share the RollingVersions Overview to highlight the tool’s purpose and features.
• Conduct a short presentation or meeting explaining why your organization is adopting RollingVersions.

Step 2: Set Up Access for Team Members

Developers

RollingVersions uses GitHub permissions to manage access for developers. Once RollingVersions is installed, just shared the URL to the dashboard with developers.

• The link to share with developers is

  https://rollingversions.com/{{owner}}/{{repo}}

• Click here to manage which repositories RollingVersions is added to.

Non Developers

If you want to give access to RollingVersions for non-developers, you can create a public software release timeline link for the repository from RollingVersions.

1. Open your RollingVersions dashboard at

   https://rollingversions.com/{{owner}}/{{repo}}

   (replacing

   {{owner}}

   and

   {{repo}}

   with your GitHub organization and repository names).
2. Click on the "Repository Settings" button in the top right corner.
3. Click the "Show" button under "Timeline Link" to reveal the magic link.
4. Share this link with your non-developer team members to give them read-only access to the RollingVersions dashboard.

Step 2: Train Your Team on Using RollingVersions

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Creating a Pull Request:
   • When opening a PR, RollingVersions will prompt the contributor to describe the change.
   • Enter a clear and concise description into the relevant section (i.e. "New Features", "Bug Fixes", etc.).
   • Add screenshots if relevant.
2. Reviewing a Pull Request before merging:
   • Ensure descriptions are clear and concise.
   • Ensure changes to the code match the descriptions.
3. Publishing a release:
   • After all PRs are merged, review the draft release in RollingVersions.
   • Ensure any changes are properly tested.
   • Trigger the release from the dashboard or CI/CD pipeline.

Best Practices

• Keep descriptions focused and user-oriented (e.g., “Fixed login bug” vs. “Adjusted code for auth”).
• Use consistent terminology for changelog entries.

Step 3: Standardize Team Processes

1. Agree guidelines for how release notes should be written, what types of changes should be included, and who should write and review the release notes. We suggest:
   • Ensure descriptions are user-focused.
   • Use clear language and avoid jargon.
   • Clearly establish what it means to be a "New Feature" vs. "Bug Fix" vs. "Breaking Change" etc.
   • Do not put internal changes (e.g. dependency updates) in the "New Features" section of the change log.
2. Include a RollingVersions Workflow section in your project’s README. Once you've agreed on the process, it makes sense to document it in your README so that new team members can quickly get up to speed.
3. Encourage Adoption:
   • Set expectations for all team members to use RollingVersions on every PR.
   • Highlight the benefits of automating changelogs and reducing manual tasks.

Step 4: Monitor and Iterate

Team Feedback

• Schedule a retrospective after a few releases to gather feedback on using RollingVersions.
• Adjust changelog categories or workflows based on team input.

Track Metrics

• Monitor improvements in release frequency and reduced manual overhead.
• Highlight successes to encourage continued adoption.

By following this guide, your team will be well-equipped to use RollingVersions effectively, standardize changelogs, and optimize your release process.