Self-triggered builds

The next important thing to understand is the self-triggered automated build. Build automation is simply a series of automated steps that compile the code and generate executables. The build automation can take the help of build tools like Ant and Maven. The self-triggered automated build is the most important part of a CI system. There are two main factors that call for an automated build mechanism:

• Speed.
• Catching integration or code issues as early as possible.

There are projects where 100 to 200 builds happen per day. In such cases, speed plays an important factor. If the builds are automated, then it can save a lot of time. Things become even more interesting if the triggering of the build is made self-driven, without any manual intervention. Auto-triggered build on every code change further saves time.

When builds are frequent and fast, the probability of finding an error (build error, compilation error, or integration error) in the framework of SDLC is higher and faster:

Probability of error versus build graph