So you have your code, what do you do with it?
– Bad idea – keep it on your laptop or a network drive

What SCM tool do you use to store your source code?
– SCM – Software Configuration Management
– Also called version control
– It’s where you put your code so that nothing bad happens to it (like being deleted).

What build tool you use will depend on the platform and language that you are writing your code in.
– Java, .net, C++, C#, nodeJS, etc.
– Linux, AIX, Solaris, Windows, Docker, Mainframe, etc.

First you will need to understand your build process.
– Automation enables your process to go faster and smoother but it does not replace the process.
– You need to sit down and document the entire process from Requirements definition to having an artifact that can be installed into an environment.
– Value Stream Mapping
-example:
– Document the requirement (including acceptance criteria).
– Check out code (if existing).
– Modify code to meet the acceptance requirements as written in the requirement.
– Check in / Commit your code to your SCM system.
– Update and parameter or config files as needed.
– Run automated/manual unit tests (this will be another podcast).
– Run your packaging utility (this will depend on the language that you are writing your code in).
– Ant, Maven, Gradle, Make, etc.
– Upload Artifact to server (host).
This step will be replaced when automation is written.  The artifact will be uploaded to an artifact repository (binary repository).
– Install artifact into testing environment on this host.