Continuous integration (CI) is a software development practice where team members combine their codes into a shared repository for automated testing. It’s a DevOps practice that allows you to easily detect build errors and reduce backtracking. This practice improves project performance and reduces risks associated with manual code deployment.
CI allows engineers to work in parallel, creating independent modules that they can later merge into a central code repository. The continuous integration server monitors any changes made to the code.
CI projects keep a single repository. This makes the development process simple and manageable. In addition, the use of automation tools means that the engineers can better use their time building features instead of testing and deploying. This also ensures better communication between the team, as it reduces the potential errors or miscommunications.
Continuous integration (CI) Hiring guide
A source-code version control system monitors the amount of work done, while the quality of code is checked through automated tests. These automated tests perform various unit tests to ensure that the code is satisfactory and as free of bugs as possible.
After the automated testing is completed, the CI server assigns a build label to the newest commit and informs the engineer if the build was successful. If the build is a failure, the engineer has to work on the issues to fix them. If the build is successful, it moves forward to the staging phase for test deployment. There, it goes through integration and load tests to ensure that it runs correctly when deployed in production. At last, the build is deployed in the production environment.
Continuous Integration in today’s market
Many organizations have adopted CI techniques and tools due to their numerous advantages. Different CI tools such as Jenkins, Buddy, and TeamCity, are used by engineers worldwide to manage workflows and reduce costs.
Before using CI tools, engineers had to manually merge their code to the main repository. Since it was a tedious process, most engineers waited for their work to be fully completed before pushing their code to production. Unfortunately, that meant that if a build had implementation and merge errors, they weren’t identified until it was too late.
CI tools can self-test and identify such bugs, allowing you to quickly fix them. That’s why many companies such as Amazon, Netflix, and Walmart use CI tools for maintaining their repository and building features.
Issues companies have when hiring CI engineers
CI tools offer great flexibility and efficiency, but it can sometimes be challenging to find engineers who know how to work with them. Experienced engineers who know how to write and optimize test cases for automation are rare. If an engineer writes poor or outdated tests, it can cause flawed code to be deployed in production.
The use of CI tools in a company should always come with a change in the culture. The engineers have to be trained to regularly push their code to the repository. Not doing so can cause implementation issues.
CI engineers should also be responsible for maintaining security. Not maintaining security can cause cyberattacks on the mainline build, which can affect the whole project.
How to select the perfect CI engineer?
A CI engineer should have good knowledge of the CI process and pipelines. They should know about build release and deployment platforms such as CircleCI, Jenkins, Patheon, and GitHub.
The candidate should have expertise in scripting languages such as Bash, Golang, Perl, and Python. They should also know about confidential version installation on cloud/docker.
The selected candidate should also be well-versed in bug fixing and report generation. Candidates with an understanding of AWS, EC2, ECR are always preferred.
Interview Questions
What are the best continuous integration tools available in the market?
There are various continuous integration tools currently available in the market, such as Jenkins, TeamCity, Bamboo, Buddy, and GitLab CI. You should always consider factors such as project requirements, features, and cost of production before picking a tool. If you’re just starting out, you can pick open-source tools such as Gradle, Jenkins, and GitLab CI for your development.
Can you use different continuous integration tools together?
Yes, engineers often use various continuous integration tools when one tool doesn’t meet all the project’s requirements. For example, you can use Git for version control, Jenkins for CI/CD pipeline, Nagios for resource tracking, and Docker for testing.
Why use a CI server?
A CI server continuously integrates the changes made to the repository and checks them for compilation errors. It continuously builds and tests the codebase after every commit and informs engineers about any build failures. The engineer can then work on fixing them.
What are the different automation testing tools you can use for continuous testing?
Some of the common tools companies use for testing are Testigma, Selenium, UFT, and Tosca. These tools help fix bugs early in the development process and save time and effort.
What’s the blue/green deployment technique?
In this technique, you have 2 different environments, blue and green. The blue environment is also called the running environment, and the green environment is called the idle environment. When you build and deploy in one environment, the other environment stays idle and can be used for backup. If any issues happen in the new build, you can easily swap environments and redirect traffic to the old environment. This technique reduces downtime and cost to businesses during upgrades.
Job Description
We are looking for smart and adaptable engineers who are experienced in CI/CD development and deployment. They should be team players who are passionate about all aspects of DevOps and project management.
They should also know about release managers and build automation tools. This is an excellent opportunity for result-oriented engineers who want to work in a fast-paced organization.
Responsibilities
- Use CI/CD tools to create, test, and execute code builds.
- Set up CI pipelines and Jenkins Master suite.
- Work with build automation tools such as Teamcity.
- Implement monitoring and reporting protocols.
- Work on application modules using languages such as Python, Perl, and Go.
- Coordinate with product managers to work on DevOps projects.
- Follow best industry practices and standards
- {{Add other relevant responsibilities}}
Skills and Qualifications
- Working knowledge of CI/CD tools along with hands-on knowledge of configuration management.
- Experience in writing build modules and implementing test automation.
- Proven experience with writing code and handling deployment on the cloud.
- Strong knowledge of version control tools.
- Experience in AWS or Azure
- Knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes (containers).
- Candidates with knowledge of Linux administration are preferred.
- Problem-solving skills and team spirit.
- {{Add other frameworks or libraries related to your development stack}}
- {{List education level or certification required}}
