Why Pipeline as Code matters in Jenkins - See It in Action

Why Pipeline as Code matters

📖 Scenario: You work in a team that builds software. Your team wants to automate how code is tested and deployed. Instead of clicking buttons in Jenkins every time, you want to write the pipeline steps as code. This way, the pipeline can be saved, shared, and changed easily.

🎯 Goal: You will create a simple Jenkins pipeline script as code. This script will define steps to build and test a project. You will see how writing pipeline as code helps keep automation clear and repeatable.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Jenkins pipeline script with a pipeline block

Add an agent section to run the pipeline on any available node

Add a stages section with two stages: Build and Test

In the Build stage, add a step to print Building the project...

In the Test stage, add a step to print Running tests...

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Teams use Pipeline as Code to automate software builds and tests reliably without manual clicks.

💼 Career

Knowing how to write Jenkins pipelines as code is a key skill for DevOps engineers and automation specialists.

1

Create the pipeline block

Write a Jenkins pipeline script starting with a pipeline block and an agent any section.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

The pipeline block is the main container. agent any means Jenkins can run this anywhere.

2

Add stages section

Inside the pipeline block, add a stages section with two stages named Build and Test. Leave the stages empty for now.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Build') {
            // Your code here
        }
        stage('Test') {
            // Your code here
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

The stages section holds all the steps your pipeline will run. Each stage groups related steps.

3

Add steps to stages

Inside the Build stage, add a steps block with a echo step printing Building the project.... Inside the Test stage, add a steps block with a echo step printing Running tests....

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Build') {
            // Your code here
        }
        stage('Test') {
            // Your code here
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

The steps block inside each stage tells Jenkins what to do. echo prints messages to the console.

4

Run and see the output

Run the pipeline script in Jenkins and observe the console output. The output should show Building the project... and Running tests... messages.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Build') {
            steps {
                echo 'Building the project...'
            }
        }
        stage('Test') {
            steps {
                echo 'Running tests...'
            }
        }
    }
}

// Run the pipeline and check output

Need a hint?

Look at the Jenkins console log after running the pipeline. You should see the messages from both stages.