About this Handbook

The Roivant IT handbook is the single source-of-truth about how Roivant IT operates, from working norms to career levels to internal and external communications to home workspace setup.

Where did this come from?

This material is inspired heavily by the concept of a handbook-first documentation-first culture. As firm believers in the ethos, techniques and processes of Open-Source Software, this hand book is derived directly from a portion of the open-source GitLab Handbook. We’re using the parts that work, adapting the ones that we can adapt, and skipping the ones that don’t work for Roivant IT. But the GitLab Handbook is simply the bedrock on which we are building our handbook. The real source is everyone in Roivant IT - everyone can participate, everyone can contribute. As you being to browse this material, just keep in mind that everything is a draft. You may find odd material, broken links or other sorts of strange content - we’re working on it.

Why can I see this before it’s “finished”

Because we believe in transparency and iteration. Also, living material is never “finished” ;)

How do I contribute?

So we can effectively all contribute, and we can manage those contributions, we will be treating documentation as code. DON’T PANIC. You don’t need to be a developer, nor write a single line of code. We’re working on a fast and easy “howto” to get all of Roivant IT up and running with editing our handbook, just bear with us until that’s done. If you are technically inclined and would like to get a jump on this, the handbook repo can be found here: https://gitlab.com/roivant/vant-it/roivant-it-handbook/. Feel free to branch it and submit MRs.

Why is this not in [insert Confluence/Sharepoint/etc here]?

Platforms like Confluence and Sharepoint have a place, but by design, they are limited in what they can display and we are able to interact with them. In particular, they are easy to get data in and very hard to get data out. Additionally, while each store per-page history, neither has the ability to “version” entire sets of content - like an entire handbook, nor do they allow for broad edits across many pages at once (among many other limitations). Instead, we chose “neutral” tools - Hugo, which allows for complete access to practically any web technology, but which uses Markdown, an extremely human-friendly way of writing content.