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Update config update guidance

Nicole Schwartz requested to merge update-product-config-guidance into master

Why is this change being made?

Was - !41788 (closed)

Per issue

"Deciding whether to add configuration"

A configuration should only appear in a file (gitlab.rb or gitlab.yml) as a last resort.

However, I wish to slice this issue in half and discuss two sub points to make sure I understand intent and implications.

  1. In some cases we MUST have data from a user to proceed, for example as specified above, if they want "Container Scanning" turned on, or off. Is this something we should NOT want as a configuration? There are many cases where having the scan make no sense, when customers have or use alternate tools, or where it is just not something suers desire. So I feel that being able to turn something on and off makes sense and should be a configuration and belongs in gitlab.yml. Am i not considering this correctly, or is this handbook page unclear such that it is causing engineering concern that we are headed in an incorrect direction when we are not.
  2. We should strive for any configuration that can be made to be both in the UI and via other means so if you use API or web you can be equally as in control, so by that value, again to the above example issue, because it is in the config file we should strive to have it in the UI.

Author Checklist

  • Provided a concise title for the MR
  • Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per [say-why-not-just-what][transparency]
  • Assign this change to the correct DRI
    • If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to your manager.
    • If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in [#mr-buddies][mr-buddies-slack].
    • If the changes relate to any part of the project other than updates to content and/or data files please make sure to ping @gl-static-site-editor in a comment for a review and merge. For example changes to .gitlab-ci.yml, JavaScript/CSS/Ruby code or the layout files.

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