IBM DevOps Build is a continuous integration and build management solution which helps provide enterprise-level metrics including:
- Compliance
- Governance
- Data aggregation and reporting
- Auditing and logging
- Version and change control
Here is a look at our new and improved user experience with left-hand navigation that one can expand and collapse:
We recently introduced new capabilities in our IBM DevOps Build 7.1.0.4 release which we wanted to highlight for you with focus on support for:
- Multi-segment support (Loop only)
- Job as Code (JAC) features to support unique JAC pipelines for different branches
- Enhanced plugins with many installed out of the box
- New MCP Tools to support agentic AI workflows
- Enhanced user experience
DevOps Build is a key component of the new DevOps Loop platform to support build automation with key integrations automatically configured for key components including Plan, Control, Deploy, and Measure. Our latest release of the fully integrated platform is version 2.0.2 as shown below:
New Features in DevOps Build 7.1.0.4
In this blog post, we will highlight the new capabilities that are now available in the DevOps Build 7.1.0.4 release. These enhancements along with features that are in our roadmap are being introduced to make the build experience easy and simple for developers and enterprises to adopt.
Support for multiple segments in a Build project
In our latest release, a project in Build can now support “sub-projects” which we call a “segment”. Each segment can have their own unique git repository and can be configured to have their own unique build processes. Each individual segment will then feed into the higher-level project to support complex build scenarios.
Here is an example of what a project looks like with multiple segments:
Here is another view of the project where we have a segment for the backend and the frontend for an AceCapital Banking solution:
This multi-segment approach provides the following benefits:
1. Centralizes workflows
2. Eliminates isolated efforts
3. Minimizes costly miscommunications
4. Tracks milestones at a macro level
We are excited to bring this feature to this latest release helping teams to aggregate dashboarding, centralize the CI/CD for a complex build project, as well as streamlining large, distributed applications where backend and frontend are isolated but tracked together.
Job as Code (JAC) support for unique jobs for each branch in a repository
IBM DevOps Build has a Job as Code (JAC) feature that allows you to create and maintain job templates as configuration files instead of manually configuring build steps through the DevOps Build user interface. By storing workflow definitions alongside source code in Git, JAC provides a single source of truth for build automation.
You can store the JAC configuration file anywhere within a source code repository and the configuration file can be different for your main branch versus other feature or development branches.
During the build execution, the Job as Code (JAC) plugin retrieves the configuration file from the branch that triggered the build and dynamically generates the workflow defined in the file.
A configuration file can define steps such as:
- Create stamp
- Populate workspace
- Change log
- Shell script
- Status assignment
- Cleanup
The following benefits are realized using the JAC configuration:
1. Version control: build workflow definitions are stored within the source code and tracked through Git.
2. Self-service configuration: developers can modify build pipelines by updating the configuration files without requiring administrative access to the DevOps Build CI tool.
3. Branch-specific workflows: different branches can use their own JSON or YAML configuration files, allowing build steps to be customized or skipped for specific branches.
4. Consistency: build processes are defined once and executed consistently across environments.
The layout of the configuration file looks as follows in JSON format:
Enhanced plugins automatically installed
In the Build 7.1.0.4 release, we now install more plugins out-of-the-box to support our customers. Here is a screenshot of the plugins that are installed:
In the DevOps Loop platform, key integrations are configured automatically for you as you create a Loop for your project as shown in the screenshot below:
This loop creation process includes automated integration setup to make CI and CD easy for our clients!
Using AI to improve productivity
IBM DevOps Build is part of the IBM DevOps Loop platform which includes AI for every role in the lifecycle along with AI assistants that find information and answer questions about the state of delivery.
With the IBM DevOps Build 7.1.0.4 release, new MCP tools are introduced that provide new capabilities for AI agents to get things done faster.
Using the Loop Genie in DevOps Loop or connecting to the MCP Server using your AI Agent of choice like CoPilot, you can perform natural language queries and responses will be provided as shown in the example below:
Additional features are planned for our upcoming release to further improve productivity for our customers using IBM DevOps Build from an AI perspective.
Summary
IBM DevOps Build is built to support the enterprise and is a key component of the DevOps Loop platform.
The significant features added in this latest release allow build to support complex project build scenarios along with multi-branch job as code (JAC) use cases. New AI features allow for efficient diagnosis of build failures along with insight on changes that may impact the build.
Further enhancements are in our roadmap which we are very excited to bring to the market, and we will keep you informed of additional significant enhancements as they become available to our customers.
To learn more about the IBM DevOps Build 7.1.0.4 release, please read about the new capabilities here. You can also download the latest release from IBM Fix Central.
IBM DevOps Build 7.1.0.4 is also available in the DevOps Loop v2.0.2 and here are some key links for your reference: