GitLab has recently announced version 16, which introduces several enhancements. These include Value Streams Dashboards, generative Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered code suggestions, and workflow features with remote development workspaces (in beta).
Kai Armstrong, senior product manager at GitLab summarised the updates in a blog post. GitLab 16 introduces Value Stream Dashboards, which enable continuous improvement of software delivery workflows by measuring value stream lifecycle and vulnerability metrics. The value stream lifecycle metrics utilize value stream analytics, incorporating the four DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) metrics as part of the package. The Value Streams Dashboard is a highly customizable interface that enhances visibility by displaying trends, patterns, and opportunities for digital transformation improvements.
Value streams are gaining increased traction within organizations as they also align with the shift in mindset from project management and waterfall approaches to product management.
To amplify efficiency and productivity across various GitLab features, updates have been made to GitLab Duo, a suite of AI capabilities, that leverage the power of generative AI. Included in GitLab Ultimate, GitLab Duo provides various features, such as Summarising Merge Requests, Suggest Reviewers, Explain This Vulnerability, and more, to assist in the software development lifecycle. Improvements are made to Code Suggestions, with support for 13 programming languages. Code Suggestions is currently available in VS Code via the GitLab Workflow Extension.
AI and ML systems help organizations discover new opportunities and products. According to Zorina Alliata, senior software managers should understand the basics of AI and ML. Although roles like data scientist, data engineer, and ML engineer may not exist in current software engineering teams, leaders should be prepared to hire and train for these positions.
In addition to various other enhancements, GitLab 16 introduced a beta release of Remote Development Workspaces, which are ephemeral development environments in the cloud. Based on the AMD64 architecture, each workspace is equipped with its unique set of dependencies, libraries, and tools.
Omnibus GitLab, a method of packaging the necessary services and tools for running GitLab, has received updates to simplify the installation process for most users, eliminating the need for complex configurations. This update has garnered attention, as highlighted in a Reddit post by the original poster omenosdev, who mentioned in the comments, "...but I know some people have been waiting a long while to be able to deploy GitLab on RHEL 9..."
Armstrong thanked the wider GitLab community for the 304 contributions they provided to GitLab 16 and has asked the readers to take note of upcoming releases via the Product Kickoff Review page. The updates are made to the page on the 22nd of each month. As of this writing, GitLab 16.1 is released.