News

DevOps Toolmaker UrbanCode Adds Enterprise Build Automation

• By John K. Waters
• March 27, 2013

UrbanCode, a provider of continuous integration (CI) and lifecycle automation products, has released a new enterprise class build automation tool called uBuild. The new tool is designed to provide developers using Java, C#, and C/C++ with a central, authoritative build framework for quality and dependency control, according to the company.

Build automation, which involves scripting everyday developer tasks (compiling source code, packaging binary code, running tests, deployment to production, documentation, etc.), is becoming an increasingly essential capability -- what analysts say is relief of a pain point. Centralizing builds also allows developers to gather metrics on things like change tracking, test results, code coverage and overall analytics.

Because build automation tools provide a long-term aggregation of build data, they also support data-driven decision making for the development, test and release engineering teams, said UrbanCode co-founder and CEO Maciej Zawadski. The uBuild tool is designed to compile this build data automatically and to show build progress or regression over time. The result: visibility with the potential to shows where errors originate and where the code works well.

Cleveland-based UrbanCode describes itself as a DevOps release-and-deployment tool maker, and the company is probably best-known for its flagship AnthillPro platform. AnthillPro is a build-and-release management tool aimed at teams using .NET, Java and native technologies. By combining CI with automated deployment and test orchestration, the platform provides developers with "a continuous release pipeline," the company says.

The new uBuild tool is built on the AnthillPro platform. Among other things, it allows organizations to use templates to codify their best practices into the build process. It also provides checks on those practices; built-in "sensitivity automation indicators" -- including unit tests, code coverage and static analysis, among others -- that catch errors before they turn into a production issue.

Zawadski said he sees build automation at the team level as more of a management tool than a developer productivity tool. With the release of uBuild, he says, "Now a manager can ensure best practices are followed, approved tools are used, and project-level quality control is maintained, regardless of locations."