Continuous Integration Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk

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 · 447 ratings  · 31 reviews

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Apr 18, 2016 Nick rated it really liked it

Writing production grade software, integrating it, and deploying it without going through this book is like shitting in a bucket and pouring it over the side of your window. Most of the time you can "probably make it work", and because "it works" you might even think you're doing the right thing, but one day, someone--maybe a teammate, maybe you-- will be walking along the windowsill and the solution will fall like "manna from heaven."

It's always been a point of personal exasperation/professiona

Writing production grade software, integrating it, and deploying it without going through this book is like shitting in a bucket and pouring it over the side of your window. Most of the time you can "probably make it work", and because "it works" you might even think you're doing the right thing, but one day, someone--maybe a teammate, maybe you-- will be walking along the windowsill and the solution will fall like "manna from heaven."

It's always been a point of personal exasperation/professional embarrassment about the pervasiveness of ignorance in my field when I have to explain to other "senior" developers that there's a difference between unit/component(integration)/system(~ functional) tests. Now I'm just going to throw the section about testing at them. Excellent breakdown.

I always thought the idea of testing and automating database creation and data population was "cute"...this book made me realize how absolutely vital it is. Too many times I've seen dev teams shackled by "the dev/integration database is down/has bad data" and the solution is astonishingly simple. So much effort wasted on making/fixing batch jobs, pushing forward with broken tests because of "known issues"... it's another embarrassing trend.

I'm not as sold on the centralized build machine in the age of Containers. I think conceptually it made a lot of sense at the time to keep environmental dependencies to a minimum--and I'm sure illustrious hackers can find a way to bake local environmental assumptions into Container images-- but it still feels to me like a lot of the work done in a "private build" is essentially duplicated simply for the "clean room reproducibility" a CI server provides, which now comes close to guaranteed in a shrink-wrapped image.

I do think that the "staged build" concept provides an opportunity to argue for its continued existence. A "lightweight build" that executes the tests and prepares the deployable artifact could be run locally, while some of the longer inspections and analysis (load testing, bake in testing, A/B testing) could work on the CI server. Obviously you can exert maximum control by only allowing the CI server to carry out full deployment to Prod, but there's an argument to be made that this handcuffs skilled developers in failure mode situations.

Having seen (and driven) pushes towards full CI/CD (which I think it may be helpful to separate), it seems once again (like that mythical unicorn) that this is another one of the 12 practices of XP that really shines when the others are in place. Releases have to be small and frequent which implies changes have to be small and frequent, which implies the devs have to specify, design, and implement in a way that makes code easy to test and refactor. CD, as a separate problem space, can be potentially simplified with enough automation and tooling with sufficient workflows to promote/rollback fairly easily.

The final nit is that a lot of the tools are obviously almost a decade old and the market has changed significantly since then. It may have been helpful to just throw the last section away and focus more on the concepts. The evaluation criterion in the appendix was interesting, and may be a target for a "quick cheat sheet" to fill out when analyzing tools.

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Nov 28, 2013 Vergiliu rated it really liked it

 Even though I had little expectations from this book, after going over a couple of reviews on Goodreads I still decided to go ahead and read it. I think if you're new to this whole CI thing, this is a great book to start with, even if some of the tools presented are no longer that recent/relevant. It goes over many good practices, and all the practices and recommendations are not only still relevant, but surely there are still many teams and companies out there today, that are still not followi  Even though I had little expectations from this book, after going over a couple of reviews on Goodreads I still decided to go ahead and read it. I think if you're new to this whole CI thing, this is a great book to start with, even if some of the tools presented are no longer that recent/relevant. It goes over many good practices, and all the practices and recommendations are not only still relevant, but surely there are still many teams and companies out there today, that are still not following them.

Automating builds, failing fast and using a dedicated build machine for quicker builds is common sense today, but considering that this is a 2009 book, it is rather impressive that not everyone is not fully on-board with the ideas presented in here. Funny thing is, some of the tools presented are no longer available at this point, while others have become de-facto standards.

I would recommend this book for everyone who needs to have an introduction to the whole CI (Integration) and CD (Delivery) of software, and get some solid good practices from the automation side.

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Oct 02, 2011 Jean Tessier rated it did not like it

The entire book can be reduced to two slides: one diagram and one bullet list of pros and cons. The diagram shows up again and again; they use it as a map to the contents, highlighting the current section. Each time, the diagram takes about three quarters of the page. It is not a very busy diagram and if could easily have been made smaller.

So far, it is very repetitive. They keep repeating the same things over and over. They keep promising that topics will be covered in more depth in later chapt

The entire book can be reduced to two slides: one diagram and one bullet list of pros and cons. The diagram shows up again and again; they use it as a map to the contents, highlighting the current section. Each time, the diagram takes about three quarters of the page. It is not a very busy diagram and if could easily have been made smaller.

So far, it is very repetitive. They keep repeating the same things over and over. They keep promising that topics will be covered in more depth in later chapters, but I am still waiting.

In the end, the whole book could be reduced to that one diagram and a short bullet list of pros and cons. I was pretty disappointed. But if you need to sell a continuous build to someone who is not technical and does not understand programming, maybe this is a book for that.

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Mar 29, 2018 Suman rated it really liked it

Great book to start working on Continuous Integration. Most tools recommended are more focused on Java development and some for .Net. Definitely suggest this book for contemporary as-well-as veteran software engineers and quality assurance engineers.

NOT recommended!

Even though CI is a really good and important practice, this book is not a good source of information.

Overly verbose, repeating, really small information content, bad/harmful code examples.

I wish I could get my money back since I don't want to promote this kind of content :(

Good book for a beginner. I should have read it a year ago and maybe I would have given it a 5 star.

Jan 15, 2018 Manas rated it really liked it

I learned a lot from this book for sure.

We as a team learned this book together

Pretty good book about Continuous Integration ... If you get into Product Development then this is a must read!

Jan 19, 2019 DANIEL rated it liked it

Good explanations about what implies Continuous Integration, which are the advantages and how to implement it in a theoritical way.

Dec 10, 2019 Nathan rated it liked it

The information is sound, but the tools mentioned are a little bit dated.

Always nice to read a book about a topic you have struggled with for some time.

CI/CD tools and practices

Feb 12, 2017 _ rated it really liked it

Excellent read! So many developers fail to set up a reliable Continuous Integration system for their project. This book is a practical guide that changes your way of thinking about topics like Software Quality and Risk.

Oct 06, 2015 Terry rated it liked it

Not bad. Book often seemed to presume that the reader took a dismissive stance towards the benefits of CI. Often read like a collection of powerpoint presentation essays. Skipped around a bit between topics. Mostly Java-centric, but what is not nowadays. Disliked the stilted/weird dialog of faceless characters having arguments/discussions surrounding CI topics. The jagoff DBA, the cowboy coder, the clueless dev, and so on. Not bad, could have been better, but was probably great for the time. If Not bad. Book often seemed to presume that the reader took a dismissive stance towards the benefits of CI. Often read like a collection of powerpoint presentation essays. Skipped around a bit between topics. Mostly Java-centric, but what is not nowadays. Disliked the stilted/weird dialog of faceless characters having arguments/discussions surrounding CI topics. The jagoff DBA, the cowboy coder, the clueless dev, and so on. Not bad, could have been better, but was probably great for the time. If anything, the first chapter graphic explaining CI and what all can be expected out if it was useful. Most people think of the CI server as the "build" machine, but don't seem to expand that definition to areas of feedback generation, DB integration, and deployment. Good stuff and a brisk read, with an appendix full of products that may likely still exist in the tech field now. ...more

Jan 30, 2011 Ryan rated it liked it

Let me be clear: I liked the information that was provided. Very useful and applicable to software engineering, and it really changed the way I look at development processes and continuous integration.

But it was way too wordy. I think the information could have been conveyed much more succinctly. The great nuggets of information were watered down with too many justifications and narratives and perspectives.

It's a good general overview of CI. It's focused on java domain, but most of the stuff is applicable to .Net domain as well. It's a good book for people who is new to CI, but for me it wasn't much interesting. It's a good general overview of CI. It's focused on java domain, but most of the stuff is applicable to .Net domain as well. It's a good book for people who is new to CI, but for me it wasn't much interesting. ...more

It's a comprehensive overview of CI methodology and tooling. It's worth reading for a newbies. Those who have CI experience may learn just a thing or two there but still it may be a good reading for them. You may find it also useful if you are migrating from Java to .NET or vice-versa. It's a comprehensive overview of CI methodology and tooling. It's worth reading for a newbies. Those who have CI experience may learn just a thing or two there but still it may be a good reading for them. You may find it also useful if you are migrating from Java to .NET or vice-versa. ...more

Mar 11, 2012 Michael rated it liked it

Good introduction to Continuous Integration. Broad in scope and fairly basic, a quick read. Contains a lot of material about specific tools (the appendix is 15% of the book), but since it was published in 2007, that is all out of date.

Jan 25, 2016 Samuel rated it it was ok

I didn't like it, could a 10th thinner and deliver the same content. Once you finish the first chapters about what CI is (and not from any breakthrough perspective) the rest of the book isn't more than going over and over of the same idea and present some tools, mainly for Java projects.
I didn't like it, could a 10th thinner and deliver the same content. Once you finish the first chapters about what CI is (and not from any breakthrough perspective) the rest of the book isn't more than going over and over of the same idea and present some tools, mainly for Java projects.
...more

This is a general overview of CI, with examples from the java domain. There are no great revelations - but if you are new to CI, then it gives a good overview of the ideas

Mar 24, 2012 Larry rated it did not like it

Typical "textbook-ized" fluff. Two-hundred and seventy pages that should have been three. Typical "textbook-ized" fluff. Two-hundred and seventy pages that should have been three. ...more

Quite a good starter on theoretical CI. It lacks more practical knowledge, but it is not a big problem.

Jan 10, 2013 Nathan rated it did not like it

What a waste of space. Don't even bother. The wikipedia article on Continuous Integration gives you as much useful information as this book. What a waste of space. Don't even bother. The wikipedia article on Continuous Integration gives you as much useful information as this book. ...more

Good introduction in the continuos integration, rating is low because a lot of water it it.

It is basic book about CI.

Nowadays, we have a lot of information in sites, blogs and Stack Overflow. However, this book explain WHAT is CI.

Apr 25, 2017 Eugene rated it it was amazing

It's a nice book about the CI practice. Straightforward. Easy to grasp. Authors revealed common pitfalls of integration steps.
Must-read, if you think about CI is a tool or a server.
It's outdated in terms of git and PR. It's a nice book about the CI practice. Straightforward. Easy to grasp. Authors revealed common pitfalls of integration steps.
Must-read, if you think about CI is a tool or a server.
It's outdated in terms of git and PR. ...more

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