Talk given at the 2014 Grace Hopper Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Covers the history of the Build & Release Engineering area at Unity (from 2010 to the current state in 2014), and then follows with an overview and introduction to the "5 Pillars of Build Engineering" and what they mean in practice.

1. 2014
Build & Infrastructure
Engineering
What It Is and Why You Need It
Na’Tosha J. Bard
October 9, 2014
#GHC14
2014

2. 2014
What is Build Engineering?

3. 2014
Build Engineering is the glue
that holds the software
development process
together.

4. 2014
Examples of Build Engineering
 Choosing, configuring, customizing, and
maintaining a CI server
 Applying/Optimizing development models
(branch-based, patch-based, etc.)
 Build optimizations (distributed builds, bulk
builds, etc.)
 … and much more

5. 2014
Why do I care?

6. 2014
About the Speaker
 Na’Tosha J. Bard
 Copenhagen, Denmark
 Lead Build &
Infrastructure
Developer, Unity
Technologies
 Open-Source and Linux
Enthusiast

7. 2014
What is Unity?
 Game engine and content
creation toolkit
 Editor for Mac OSX and
Windows
 Runtime ported to ~20
platforms
 Mostly written in C++
 Gameplay code written in C#
 Scripting engine for gameplay
code built with Mono

8. 2014
Build Engineering
at Unity Technologies

9. 2014
2010
 Unstable SVN server
 All developers commit directly to trunk
 Unstable CI server
 6 VisualStudio and Xcode solutions wrapped
in Perl
 Automated tests nightly on 2 platforms
 4 machines for building
 Deployment scripts running from developer
machines
 No automatic verification of deployed builds

10. 2014
2014
 DVCS with Mercurial
 Branch-based development
 Project files generated with Jamplus
 Stable CI solution (internally-developed)
 Automated tests running on developer branches
and on our mainline on 7+ platforms
 Build Cloud of over 200 virtual and physical
machines
 Deployment scripts running from central
deployment server with verification
 Publishing portal for deployment is in-development

11. 2014
Release Schedule Over Time
Every 2 to 6 weeks Weekly

12. 2014
Foundation of Build
Infrastructure

13. 2014
The 5 Pillars of Build Infrastructure
 One-Click Builds
 Build Automation
 Continuous Integration
 Automated Testing
 Automated Deployment

14. 2014
One-Click Builds
Building your software with just
one click.

15. 2014
Benefits of One-Click Builds
 KISS principle
 Build early, build often
 Groundwork for other software
development principles

16. 2014
Getting Started with One-Click Builds
 Depends on your application
 Cohesive buildsystem
 Keep platform-dependent issues in mind!

17. 2014
Build Automation
A build server to run your one-click
builds.

18. 2014
Benefits of Build Automation
 Verification
 Parallelization
 Groundwork for other software
development principles

19. 2014
Getting Started with Build Automation
 TeamCity, Bamboo, Team Foundation
Server
 Jenkins, Buildbot
 Give careful thought to
buildserver/buildsystem configuration split

20. 2014
Continuous Integration
Continuously run your automated
builds.

21. 2014
Benefits of Continuous Integration
 Increased developer productivity
 Helps avoid “Integration Hell”
 Automatically identifies exact failure point

22. 2014
Getting Started with Continuous Integration
 Generally, the same solutions as for Build
Automation apply here
 Note: Sometimes “Frequent Integration” is
good enough

23. 2014
Automated Testing
Execute tests on your
continuously-running builds.

24. 2014
Automated Testing
 Provides protection against regressions
 Saves human resources
 Keeps test suites from bit-rotting

25. 2014
Getting Started with Automated Testing
 Find a test framework for your technology
 NUnit, JUnit, PyUnit (unittest)
 Sometimes creating your own frameworks
is an answer (i.e, High-Level Integration
Tests)

26. 2014
Automated Deployment
Easily deploy your tested builds.

27. 2014
Benefits of Automated Deployment
 Less error-prone than manual publishing
 Easy to verify
 Easy to track release history

28. 2014
Getting Started with Automated Deployment
 Often related to build automation/CI
solution
 Highly dependent on your organization’s
server infrastructure and type of software
 Start with a simple script and expand

29. 2014
The 5 Pillars of Build Infrastructure
One-Click
Builds
Build
Automation
Continuous
Integration
Automated
Testing
Automated
Deployment

30. 2014
A Call to Arms: Tips for Getting Started
 Just do something
 When advocating for change, focus on the
benefits
 Don’t underestimate the value of having
dedicated build engineers

31. 2014
Thank You!

32. 2014
Contact Information
@natosha_bard
https://linkedin.com/in/natoshabard
+NaToshaBard

33. 2014
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