Deployment Automation vs. Build Automation

Build Automation

In software development, a build is the process of converting your source code and related assets into a deployable format. This usually means compiling code, resolving dependencies, and packaging everything into a single executable file that can be deployed to a server.

Build automation refers to performing this entire process automatically, without manual intervention. Instead of developers repeatedly building software by hand, automated tools handle the process consistently and reliably.

What Happens During a Build?

A typical build process includes the following steps:

• Compiling source files from a local or shared repository

• Resolving and adding required dependencies

• Linking files and generating build logs

• Packaging the output into formats such as JAR, WAR, EAR, or ZIP

When these steps are automated and repeatable, the build can be triggered at any time or scheduled as needed.

Why Automate the Build Process?

Manual builds are slow and error-prone. Humans can miss steps, use incorrect versions, or waste time repeating routine tasks. Build automation eliminates these risks and improves efficiency.

Key benefits of build automation include:

• Reduced manual effort and faster build cycles

• Fewer human errors during repetitive tasks

• Build logs that help diagnose issues in future releases

• Less dependency on specific team members

• Lower overall development and maintenance costs

By automating builds, teams can focus on higher-value work instead of routine execution.

Build Automation Tools: Apache Maven

One of the most widely used build automation tools for Java projects is Apache Maven.

Many developers assume that an IDE like Eclipse handles builds. While IDEs help write and manage code, they do not manage builds or dependencies effectively. Maven fills this gap.

Why Maven Is Needed

Most Java applications rely on third-party libraries. For example, a Spring-based project may require multiple dependencies. Manually downloading, managing, and updating these libraries quickly becomes tedious and error-prone.

This problem becomes worse when upgrading software versions, such as moving from Java 7 to Java 8. Without automation, dependencies must be re-downloaded and reconfigured manually.

How Maven Solves This

Maven manages both how your project is built and which dependencies it requires.

At the core of Maven is the Project Object Model (POM), defined in a pom.xml file. This file contains:

• Project metadata

• Dependency definitions

• Build order and directory structure

• Required plugins and configurations

Maven automatically downloads required libraries from repositories like Maven Central and stores them locally. You simply declare what you need in pom.xml, and Maven handles the rest.

If you later upgrade a dependency version, you only update the POM file. Maven automatically fetches the correct version for you.

Unlike older tools such as Ant, Maven does not require long, complex scripts. It relies on predefined conventions and lifecycles.

Maven Build Lifecycle

Maven builds follow a lifecycle made up of phases and goals. When you run a Maven command:

• Executing a lifecycle runs all phases in sequence

• Executing a phase automatically runs all earlier phases

This ensures builds are predictable and consistent every time.

Deployment Automation

Once your code is built, the next step is deploying it to test, staging, or production environments. This process is known as deployment automation.

Deployment automation involves installing built artifacts, configuring environments, and starting applications automatically. It reduces deployment risk and provides faster feedback through early testing.

Why Deployment Automation Matters

Manual deployments are risky. A missed step, incorrect configuration, or wrong version can break production systems. These issues are often difficult and time-consuming to diagnose.

While automating deployments across multiple systems introduces complexity, it is still far safer than relying on manual checklists or individual expertise.

Deployment automation ensures that:

• Deployments are reliable and repeatable

• Errors are reduced significantly

• Releases happen faster and more frequently

Some Benefits of deployment automation

1. Deployments become much less error-prone and much more repeatable

Manual deployments are error-prone. This is because it involves humans doing stuff. So Murphy’s Law governs it: if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Important steps in a release can be accidentally missed, faults that occur during a release may not be spotted, incorrect versions of software can be shipped, and broken software ends up going live. If you are lucky, you’ll be able to recover from this quickly. If you are unlucky, well… it’s pretty embarrassing at best.

2. Anyone in the team can deploy software

With an automated software deployment process, knowing how to release your software is captured in the system, not in an individual’s brain.

Performing manual or partially automated deployments are often the responsibility of a small subset of people in an organization. In fact, it’s not uncommon for this duty to fall to a single person in a given project team. If the person assigned the job is ill or for some reason is unavailable at short notice, releasing them can become cumbersome. With this, anyone having access to the "Deploy" button can initiate the release.

3. You can release more frequently

When an automated deployment mechanism performs a single deployment, it has a low overhead. A release process with low overhead is one that can be repeated frequently.

Teams that release frequently can deliver amazing features to their users more often and in incremental steps. In the process, they collect continuous feedback from these users on the software they created. This way, they can adapt their approach.

Which tools would help you achieve Deployment Automation?

Deployment is a complicated process that includes steps such as installing Jar/ear/war files, configuring data sources, updating activation specifications, updating endpoint URLs, bindings, and adapters, and restarting the application itself or the server. follow the release process, performing sanity checks to ensure that all the parameters have been updated as expected, and so on.

One of the most commonly used tools is Jenkins. This is an excellent tool for achieving deployment automation or continuous deployment. Deployment scripts will be written and configured in Jenkins, and with just clicking a button in Jenkins, your deployment process will start and perform all the steps much faster and in a more efficient manner.

How do I implement Deployment Automation?

If you want the best results from your automated deployment process, we suggest that you follow these tips:

• Use the same deployment process for each and every environment, even in production. This rule helps ensure that you test the deployment process repeatedly before you use it to deploy it to production.

• Allow anyone with the required credentials to deploy any version to any environment according to demand in a fully automated fashion. If you have to create a ticket and then sit back and wait for someone to prepare an environment, then you don‚Äôt really have a fully automated deployment process.

• Use the same packages for every environment. According to this rule, you should keep environment-specific configurations separate from the packages. That way, you know that the packages you are deploying to production are the same ones that you tested.

• Make it possible to recreate the state of any environment from information stored in version control. This rule helps ensure that deployments are repeatable and that, in the event of a disaster recovery scenario, you can restore the state of production in a deterministic way.

Ideally, you have a tool that you can use autonomously to make deployments, that records which build are currently in each environment, and that records the output of the deployment process for audit purposes.

What are the ways to measure deployment automation?

Measuring deployment automation is straightforward.

In your deployment process, count the number of manual steps. Work to reduce those steps systematically. The number of manual steps increases the chance of error and the deployment time as well.

Measure the percentage of automation in a deployment pipeline. Work to increase that level continually.

Determine the time spent on delays in the deployment pipeline. As you work towards reducing these delays, try to understand where and why code stalls in your deployment pipeline.

Unlock higher efficiency and quality in your software development process by choosing the right automation! Whether it's Deployment Automation for streamlined application updates or Build Automation for consistent builds, each offers unique advantages. Discover which automation best suits your needs and contact us today!

Summary

So having both build and deployment automation as part of your release or software development lifecycle process will definitely help you save time, money, and effort spent on every release and reduce a lot of chances of error so that you can focus on other important tasks rather than performing the same repetitive or mundane tasks. We definitely encourage you to spend time and consider implementing build and deployment automation in your project/business processes.