Not so long ago I found my self being assigned a task to build out a new Jenkins server for a team.  I had worked with Jenkins some, not a lot at this time.  I certainly had not installed Jenkins from scratch.  Nobody from the team seemed able to give me much details on how the server was originally setup. After some searching on the internet and not finding the kind of resources I personally like, I went looking for a book.

I found the Jenkins: The Definitive Guide. It certainly did a good job providing the basic information needed to get started, and helping me learn about additional plugins that would be beneficial to use.  It provided me the information on how to deploy, configure and setup my development environments.  It introduced a number of plugins that are common ones that you need.  From GIT, Java, Maven, Ant and other builds these plugins are the mainstay for Continuous Integration / Continuous Development.  Being able to setup build on demand, or build on change, just provided the kind of flexibility that you need in this environment.

I found the book overall easy to read and a straight forward approach to setup and use Jenkins.  Great start to bringing Continuous Integration / Continuous Development to your team.  So for beginners this is the book I would recommend you start with.

Overall I would give this book 4 of 5 Yoda’s!