Around October 2013, I became obsessed with measuring build times—and not just for performance.
Slow builds often revealed deeper issues:
- Poor modularization
- Over-engineered dependency graphs
- Flaky tests masking underlying debt
I started using Gradle Build Scans and simple shell timers to identify bottlenecks. Cutting our build time from 18 min to 6 min had a huge morale and velocity impact.
Fast builds = fast feedback = faster teams. It's more than speed; it's about momentum.