Unifying DevOps: Inside the TianTi Platform’s End‑to‑End Document Management

1 Introduction

In traditional software delivery, development, testing and operations are often separated, causing a gap between development and operations. Agile teams want rapid deployment, while operations prioritize stability, leading to conflict. DevOps integrates development, testing, deployment and operation to improve communication, collaboration and accelerate delivery.

Throughout the software lifecycle, various artifacts such as requirement, technical, and test documents are crucial for successful delivery, making their management essential.

2 TianTi Platform

The TianTi platform, developed by China Unicom Software Research Institute, is a one‑stop R&D process management system built on the cBSS 2.0 framework and the TianGong platform. It provides end‑to‑end support from requirement entry to final delivery, covering requirement, resource, design, development, testing and release, and implements a DevOps‑enabled R&D体系 for internet‑scale agile development.

2.1 DevOps Platform Architecture

The architecture consists of three layers: presentation, service and component. The component layer includes core tools such as GitLab for source control, Jenkins for CI, Sonar for code quality, and document management components. The service layer offers APIs for process, code management, CI, test management and document services. The presentation layer provides a graphical user interface for users.

Additional services include user management, permission control, reporting and monitoring.

2.2 DevOps Workflow

The workflow spans requirement, development, testing, release and operation, embodying a highly integrated, end‑to‑end lifecycle. TianTi adopts Lean management, agile development, continuous delivery for testing and release, and ITSM for operations.

3 Document Version Management

TianTi emphasizes document output at each lifecycle stage and implements a dedicated document and version management system. When creating requirements, tasks, stories or iterations, users can attach documents, and the system supports add, delete, modify operations. Uploading a new version replaces the old one while preserving history, which can be viewed, downloaded or deleted. A separate document repository stores all documents, whether linked to work items or not, and supports query, modify, delete, upload and download.

3.1 Document Storage

3.1.1 Object Storage OSS

TianTi uses Alibaba Cloud OSS for document storage, offering massive, secure, low‑cost, highly reliable storage with 99.999999999% data durability, elastic capacity and multi‑layer security.

3.1.2 OSS Key Design

Each document receives a unique OSS key composed of a UUID (without hyphens) plus the current year, followed by the version number and original file name, enabling precise query, download and deletion.

3.2 Document Metadata Storage

3.2.1 Repository Metadata in SQL

Document content resides in OSS, while metadata (ID, type, directory, associated work items, version, uploader, timestamps, etc.) is stored in relational tables, facilitating queries and management. Different work item types can configure custom document categories.

Metadata tables include document info, association tables, history tables, etc. The repository UI reads metadata from SQL; only download operations access OSS.

3.2.2 Work Item Document Metadata in MongoDB

When a document is attached to a work item (requirement, task, iteration, story), its metadata is stored together with the work item in MongoDB, which underlies all work items in TianTi.

Each attached document includes fields such as name, version, ID, storage path and type.

4 Conclusion

The TianTi platform supports the cBSS 2.0 DevOps R&D体系, covering the full software lifecycle from requirement to operation. Effective document and version management is a key capability, and this article outlines its design to provide a comprehensive understanding.

Note: The author is affiliated with China Unicom Software Research Institute and has authorized publication.