Approving Merge Requests

Merge Requests are essential for tracking changes, updates, and new files in policy documentation. The approval process ensures accuracy, compliance, and alignment with agency policies before changes are merged.

This guide outlines the steps to review and approve modifications associated with a Merge Request in PAMMS.

The updates for this section are currently in progress.

Approval Process

Approval Process Flow

approval workflow image

Groups & Roles

Each Merge Request requires review from specific approval groups based on the type of changes being proposed. Below are the key groups involved:

  • GitLab Quality Control (QC) - Ensures technical quality and compliance with Antora, Asciidoc, and overall PAMMS site build.

  • Internal Policy Approvers - These Policy Supervisors will review policy content for accuracy, relevance, and provides endorsement of policy change.

  • Legal - Assesses legal implications and ensures regulatory compliance.

  • DHS Leadership - Final review and approval before publication to the PAMMS Website

The Required Approvals for each section will be defaulted and added automatically as part of the Merge Request creation process.

Approval Tracking and Comment Templates

train approval tempalte flow

With in GitLab we are using the comment template functionality to streamline the approval process and ensure better tracking. We are using a 'Red Light' / 'Green Light' system using the GitLab Labels. Each Policy approval section, outlined above, has a corresponding label. When the Label is red it will be pending approval from the appropriate group and once approved it will be updated to green as show in the example below. Once each section has reviewed and approved the merge request a comment template is used to approve the MR, updated the labels, and notify the next group that the MR is ready for their review.

train approval labels