--- title: "18 Questions to ask yourself when choosing continuous integration and build automation tools" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/21/18-questions-to-ask-yourself-when-choosing-continuous-integr.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/21/18-questions-to-ask-yourself-when-choosing-continuous-integr.html" published: "2010-01-21T14:57:02" updated: "2010-01-21T14:57:02" tags: [".NET", "Agile"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "In a previous post I explained the different between Continuous Integration tools and Build automation tools , but there’s also lots of be said for HOW to pick a specific CI or BA tool. What do I look for in a CI tool?…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # 18 Questions to ask yourself when choosing continuous integration and build automation tools By Roy Osherove January 21, 2010 In [.NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net), [Agile](https://osherove.com/blog/category/agile) **Historical article** · Originally published January 21, 2010; technical details may be outdated. [In a previous post I explained the different between Continuous Integration tools and Build automation tools](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2010/01/14/the-difference-between-continuous-integration-tools-and-automated-build-tools.aspx), but there’s also lots of be said for HOW to pick a specific CI or BA tool. **What do I look for in a CI tool?** - first and foremost – **how intuitive and usable is it?** how easy is it to add, remove or change build configurations? How long will it take me to explain to a new dev on my team how these builds are connected?, and how long will it take them to change or fix a build related problem? - Does it have the ability to run builds on “slave” machines or just on the local machine where its installed? - Do I need to use XML to configure it? - How easy is it to see the status of a build, history of builds? - can I “kill” and detect a “stuck” build? - How long does it take to setup? - Does it have good metrics? - does it contain ability to launch random “exe” or “command line” batch files? - Does it allow for build hierarchies? (builds that depend on each other’s output, or that trigger each other automatically, or that all have to pass ) - Is there a large community or product support in case of a commercial product? - How much does it cost? will it cost me more to use a “free” tool given the questions above? **What do I look for in a build automation tool?** - first and foremost – **how intuitive and usable is it?** is the configuration interface visual? XML based? tree based? how easy is it to add, remove or change existing scripts? How long will it take me to explain to a new dev on my team how the build works, and how long will it take them to change or fix a build related problem? - How many built in tasks are there with the tool? the more “custom” tasks i need to create to make my build work, the less productive I am - How easy is it to create a custom task? in what language? how easy is it to integrate a custom task into a build flow? - Can a script run other scripts ? - How easy is it to read the log generated by the build tool? - How well does it play with my existing toolset? (if I use TFS – can I easily invoke it from TFS? can it invoke TFS related things like add new TFS task items?) - Is there a large community or product support in case of a commercial product? - How much does it cost? will it cost me more to use a “free” tool given the questions above? **Bonus question:** - Am I choosing this tool blindly because someone I respect is using it, or did I check other options and this choice is based on the actual pros and cons of the tool? ## More in .NET [All posts in .NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net) - Feb 10, 2010 ### [Working on a new product](https://osherove.com/blog/2010/2/10/working-on-a-new-product.html) - Jan 30, 2010 ### [TDD master class – Vienna Feb 15-19](https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/30/tdd-master-class-vienna-feb-15-19.html) - Jan 14, 2010 ### [January at Israel .net user group: Unit Testing!](https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/14/january-at-israel-net-user-group-unit-testing.html) - Jan 14, 2010 ### [The difference between continuous Integration tools and automated build tools](https://osherove.com/blog/2010/1/14/the-difference-between-continuous-integration-tools-and-auto.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/