Ultimate is an application designed for conducting employee performance appraisals. The tool is used by Unilever Global to streamline and automate the appraisal process, ensuring consistent evaluations and feedback for employees across various departments.
Background
The project was created to address the need for an efficient and standardized appraisal process within Unilever Global. Prior to this application, manual processes were used, which led to inconsistencies, delays, and challenges in tracking employee performance over time. Ultimate automates and simplifies the appraisal workflow, providing a centralized platform for both managers and employees to engage in the performance evaluation process.
Role & Responsibilities
In this project, I served as a DevOps Engineer and was responsible for:
- Ensuring seamless integration and deployment using DevOps practices.
- Preparing the infrastructure for development, testing, and production environments.
- Setting up the staging environment for Unilever’s QA team to perform their tests.
- Managing the deployment process to ensure smooth operations in the production environment.
Dev Process
I implemented the following DevOps process to ensure continuous integration and deployment:
- Version Control: Code pushed by developers was stored in GitLab repositories for versioning and collaboration.
- CI/CD Pipeline: Used GitLab CI to automatically execute the build and deployment pipelines.
- Deployment: Due to the lack of Docker, the application was manually deployed using Apache Tomcat on a Windows Server 2019 environment.
Challenge
- Deployment on Windows Server 2019: The application was deployed manually on Windows Server 2019 without the use of Docker, requiring the configuration of Apache Tomcat manually to ensure smooth deployment.
- SFTP and SSH Access: Working with Unilever Global required requesting access tickets for SFTP and SSH connections to ensure secure communication between environments. This process involved detailed coordination with their IT team to comply with security protocols.
Collaboration
This project involved close collaboration between internal teams and Unilever Global, including:
- Internal Development Team: Collaborated on the implementation and customization of the application based on requirements from Unilever.
- Quality Assurance (QA): Coordinated with Unilever’s QA team for testing and validation.
- Unilever Global: Communicated directly with Unilever’s IT team to request necessary access (SFTP, SSH) and troubleshoot deployment issues on their infrastructure. Regular feedback was exchanged to align the app’s functionality with Unilever’s business needs.
Result
- Successfully deployed the Ultimate application for Unilever Global on time.
- Reduced the manual effort in managing appraisals, resulting in a 30% time savings for HR departments.
- The application improved the accuracy and consistency of employee evaluations, making the process more transparent and efficient.



