Merge branch 'process-patch-releases' into 'master'

Update versioning process

See merge request gitlab-org/gitlab-workhorse!334

PROCESS.md

@@ -21,5 +21,28 @@ maintainers. The release process is:
 
 - create a merge request to update CHANGELOG and VERSION on the
   respective release branch (usually `master`)
+- make sure the new version number adheres to our [versioning standard](#versioning)
 - merge the merge request
 - run `make release` on the release branch
+
+## Versioning
+
+Workhorse uses a variation of SemVer. We don't use "normal" SemVer
+because we have to be able to integrate into GitLab stable branches.
+
+A version has the format MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.
+
+- Major and minor releases are tagged on the `master` branch
+- If the change is backwards compatible, increment the MINOR counter
+- If the change breaks compatibility, increment MAJOR and set MINOR to `0`
+- Patch release tags must be made on stable branches
+- Only make a patch release when targeting a GitLab stable branch
+
+This means that tags that end in `.0` (e.g. `8.5.0`) must always be on
+the master branch, and tags that end in anthing other than `.0` (e.g.
+`8.5.2`) must always be on a stable branch.
+
+> The reason we do this is that SemVer suggests something like a
+> refactoring constitutes a "patch release", while the GitLab stable
+> branch quality standards do not allow for back-porting refactorings
+> into a stable branch.