This page is an overview for the topic of automation, as referring to the various tasks associated with software development. This notably includes building and packaging applications, running tests, software delivery, interacting with processes, communicating with web services, managing configuration files, parsing logs, managing artifacts, etc.
The objective of automation is to provide an easy-to-use, standardized interface for all the development tasks of a project, destined to be used both by the project contributors and in automated workflows (for example, continuous integration and delivery). Automation describes and implements each task so that it can be performed by any person through more or less of a single button press. It also ensures each task can be versioned, reviewed, and logged.