This article is the first in a series of four, where we, four Computer Science master students from Delft University of Technology, will be analysing the open-source project GitLab. In this series we will be conducting an analysis for several aspects about managing an open-source project, both technical and non-technical. Before we dive into these aspects in later articles, we will first provide some context on what Gitlab is and where it is going.

In this second article in a series of four, we, four Computer Science master students from Delft University of Technology, continue our pursuit to analyse the open-source project GitLab. In our previous article, we discussed the fundamental concepts and product vision of GitLab. In this article, we will dive deeper into the key architectural elements of the system to gain a better understanding how these concepts and visions were realised.

In our last article, we looked at the architectural decisions made during the development of GitLab. The vision behind most decisions was to enable everybody to contribute. This time, we will look at the different methods used to maintain high-quality standards for a software project where everybody is invited to contribute. Furthermore, we will investigate the project in detail to highlight potential points of improvement.

This is the last part of our series about the open-source project GitLab. Previously we have talked about the context, the architecture and the quality assurance processes of GitLab. To finish off, in this article we will make a sustainability analysis of both GitLab as the company and as the project. We will assess the supported and used infrastructure, search for features improving energy efficiency and investigate the impact of being an all-remote company. Additionally, we will see how GitLab employees value sustainability for them and the company.