What is version control? Git explained for PMs

Alex Tutor

You've got access to the CatChow website repository on GitHub now. How does it feel?

You

A bit scary, honestly. It looks like one wrong click could break the whole shop.

Alex Tutor

We'll take that fear apart in this module. But first, a real question from support: why does delivery cost 59 UAH now instead of 49? Marketing says it wasn't them.

Without a shared history, that's a week of asking around. With Git, it's a two-minute search. Let's see why.

Alex Tutor

Picture a price list in a shared folder: prices.xlsx, then prices-new.xlsx, then prices-final-v3.xlsx. Two people edit at once, one overwrites the other, and the old numbers are gone.

You

Painfully familiar. And nobody knows which file is the real one.

Alex Tutor

Version control fixes exactly that. It saves every state of the project as a separate step, and each step records who made it, when, and a short note on why.

Each saved step is a commit, and the chain of commits is the project's history. One project with a memory instead of ten half-copies.

Alex Tutor

Question 1

What does version control give a team that a shared folder of files doesn't?

Choose one answerFiles live in the cloud, so everyone can open them from anywhereEvery change appears on the live website automaticallyEvery saved state is kept as a step with its author, time and reason, so any earlier state can be viewed or restoredOnly one person can work on the project at a time, so nothing gets overwritten

You

Where does GitHub come in? People say "Git" and "GitHub" as if it's one word.

Alex Tutor

They're related but different. Git is the version control system itself: it records commits. Engineers run it on their laptops and type commands like git commit in a terminal.

GitHub is a website that stores Git projects and adds teamwork on top: pull requests, reviews, issues, releases. Git is the engine; GitHub is the office built around it.

You

Please tell me I don't need the terminal.

Alex Tutor

You don't. Everything in this course happens in the GitHub web UI, in the browser. When an engineer mentions a command, I'll translate it, but you'll never have to type one.

Alex Tutor

Question 2

Git and GitHub are two names for the same tool.

TrueFalse

Alex Tutor

A project together with its whole history is a repository, or repo. Ours is catchow/website: page templates, texts, images and a config file with prices.

Here's a slice of its main branch, main. In our diagrams time runs top to bottom: the oldest commit is at the top, the newest at the bottom. Each dot is a commit with its message.

Alex Tutor

Recent history of `main` in catchow/websiteFive commits, oldest first. The highlighted one changed the delivery price.

1c2e7d0Add delivery page
5b8f3a2Update cat food photos
9d04e61Fix typo in footer
a41c09eRaise delivery price to 59 UAH
e7c3b19Add summer promo bannermain

You

The fourth one: "Raise delivery price to 59 UAH". That's our mystery, solved in seconds!

Alex Tutor

And notice the messages are in English. Most teams write them that way, whatever language they speak in the office. One warning: GitHub's own commit list runs the other way, newest on top.

Alex Tutor

Question 3

In this diagram, which commit was made most recently?

A piece of `main` history

31aa0f2Add product catalogue page
7e19c44Add cat treats category
b0d5e83Fix price rounding in cart
c96f217Update footer linksmain

Choose one answer"Add product catalogue page""Add cat treats category""Fix price rounding in cart""Update footer links"

Alex Tutor

The commit also names its author: Dmytro, one of our web developers. He's in the chat, let's ask him.

Dmytro

Hi! Yes, that was me, three weeks ago. The courier company raised its rates and finance asked us to pass the increase on. It's all in the commit message and the linked pull request.

You

So the answer sat in the repo the whole time. Nobody had to remember it.

Dmytro

That's the point. I don't remember what I changed last Tuesday either. The history does.

Alex Tutor

Look at what that commit carried: the change itself, the author, the date and time, a message and a unique id, a41c09e, called a hash. Git records these for every commit, always.

Alex Tutor

Question 4

Which of these does Git record with every commit? Select all that apply.

Choose all that applyA message describing the changeWhether the change is already live on the websiteThe changes to the filesWhen it was madeWho approved the change in reviewA unique id (hash)Who made it (the author)

You

Okay, but the fear is still there. What if I click something and the site breaks?

Alex Tutor

Reading can't break anything. Opening files, commits and pull requests changes nothing. The site changes only when someone merges a change into main, and at CatChow that always goes through review first.

And even a bad change isn't a disaster. Git never throws history away, so the team can undo a commit with a new one or go back to any earlier state. We'll practise that in the last module.

Dmytro

True story: I once broke the checkout button. The fix was one click on Revert and a two-line apology in Slack.

You

That's oddly comforting.

Alex Tutor

Question 5

Opening files, commits and pull requests on GitHub can change the live CatChow website.

TrueFalse

Alex Tutor

Let's sum up what history gives you as a PM, not just the engineers.

You can compare any two versions, find who changed a line and why, restore an earlier state, and let several people work in parallel without overwriting each other.

You

The delivery price case used the second one: finding who and why.

Alex Tutor

Right. Most of your time on GitHub will be that kind of detective work, far more than editing.

Alex Tutor

Question 6

Match each CatChow situation with what version control lets the team do.

Tap an answer, then tap the row it belongs to. You can also drag.

Support asks why delivery now costs 59 UAH
Yesterday's banner broke the mobile layout
Two developers change different pages on the same day
You want to see how the delivery page text looked in March

Answers left to place

Alex Tutor

Last thing. Four objects show up on every repository page, each with its own icon. Learn them now; they'll keep coming back.

Alex Tutor

Four objects on a repository page

catchow/website
The project with its full history
a41c09e Raise delivery price
One saved step with author, time and message
main
A line of commits; `main` is the accepted version
v2.4.0
A permanent name on one commit, usually a version

You

Branch and tag are new. Repository and commit I've got.

Alex Tutor

Branches get a whole module later. For now: a branch is a parallel line of work, and a tag is a permanent name on one commit, usually a version like v2.4.0.

You

So a tag is how the team says "this exact commit is what we released".

Alex Tutor

Exactly. Now try to recognise the four without their names, the way they appear in lists and menus.

Alex Tutor

Question 7

Match each numbered icon with the object it stands for.

1
2
3
4

Tap an answer, then tap the row it belongs to. You can also drag.

Icon 1
Icon 2
Icon 3
Icon 4

Answers left to place

Alex Tutor

Best test of understanding: explain it to someone else.

You

Our content marketer keeps the site texts in a shared doc with versions like "v5-final". I'd love to win her over.

Alex Tutor

Then write her two or three sentences: what the team gains from keeping site texts in the repository's history.

Keep it plain: no commands and no jargon she'd have to google.

Alex Tutor

Question 8Short answer · AI-checked task

Write 2–3 sentences to a content marketer who keeps site texts in a shared doc ("v5-final"): why keep them in the website repository's history instead?

Write your answer and get a score with feedback from our AI reviewer.

Log in to get AI feedback

Next lesson we open the repository page itself and read it from top to bottom: files, the latest commit, branches and the README.

You

And find the full story behind those 59 UAH.

Alex Tutor

That’s the lesson. You answered every task — nicely done.

Next lesson: Repository and commits: reading a repo page