1.1. Introduction

Continuous Integration, also know as CI, is a cornerstone of modern software development. In fact it is a real game changer—when Continuous Integration is introduced into an organization, it radically alters the way teams think about the whole development process. It has the potential to enable and trigger a series of incremental process improvements, going from a simple scheduled automated build right through to continuous delivery into production. A good CI infrastructure can streamline the development process right through to deployment, help detect and fix bugs faster, provide a useful project dashboard for both developers and non-developers, and ultimately, help teams deliver more real business value to the end user. Every professional development team, no matter how small, should be practicing CI.