This book is for beginners. It assumes that you are familiar with at least the Java programming language. Knowledge of core Java and JEE is essential in order to use this book to gain better insight. A strong understanding of program logic will provide you with the background to be productive with Jenkins while using plugins to write commands for the shell.
As the application development life cycle covers lot of tools in general, it is essential to have some knowledge of repositories such as SVN and Git, IDE tools such as Eclipse, and build tools such as Ant and Maven.
Knowledge of code analysis tools will make the job easier in terms of configuration and integration; however, it is not vital to perform the exercises given in this book. Most of the configuration steps are clearly mentioned. SonarQuve 6.3 version is used for code analysis.
You will be walked through the steps required to install Jenkins on a Windows and Linux-based host. In order to be immediately successful, you will need administrative access to a host that runs a modern version of Windows and Linux; Windows 10 is what will be used for demonstration purposes. If you are a more experienced reader, then a recent release of almost any distribution will work just as well (but you may be required to do a little bit of extra work that is not outlined in the book).
You can use a free trial of Microsoft Azure to work on some recipes.
Additionally, you will need access to the internet to download plugins that you do not already have, as well as an installation of Jenkins. Any normal hardware configuration is good enough, such as 4 GB RAM and 500 GB hard disk.