A full-stack, containerized Employee Management System built to demonstrate end-to-end software development, from system architecture and robust API design to automated CI/CD pipelines and self-hosted infrastructure.
While the application itself serves as a straightforward CRUD platform for managing employee records, the primary engineering objective of this project was to establish a production-grade Java/Spring Boot ecosystem, implement robust testing strategies, and architect a completely automated deployment workflow.
This repository serves as the central hub for the system. The source code is maintained in the following child repositories under the Shumisoft organization:
- Frontend Repository: shumisoft/employee-management-system-frontend
- Backend Repository: shumisoft/employee-management-system-backend
Live Environments:
- Frontend: Angular (20), JWT Authentication
- Backend: Java (17+), Spring Boot (3.5), Spring Security
- Database: PostgreSQL
- Infrastructure: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Free Tier, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- DevOps: Docker, Docker Compose, Jenkins, Watchtower
The system uses PostgreSQL to ensure data integrity and ACID compliance. The data model is mapped using JPA/Hibernate within the Spring Boot backend.
Below is the Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram representing the core domain model:
The infrastructure is entirely self-managed on a high-performance, ARM-based cloud instance, emphasizing cost-efficiency, modern compute architectures, and automation.
- Frontend Hosting: Deployed seamlessly on Vercel's global edge network.
- Backend VPS: Hosted on a self-managed Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Ampere instance (4-core ARM vCPUs, 24GB RAM, 200GB Block Storage) running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
- Containerization & Multi-Arch Builds: The backend and database are containerized. Because the VPS runs on an ARM architecture, the CI/CD pipeline utilizes Docker Buildx to compile and push multi-platform containers, ensuring compatibility across both ARM and AMD64 environments.
- Zero-Downtime Updates: A Watchtower container actively monitors the Docker registry. When a new multi-arch image is pushed via Jenkins, Watchtower pulls the latest image and gracefully redeploys the
docker-composestack without manual intervention.
A custom Jenkins pipeline (running directly on the ARM VPS) was built from scratch to ensure code reliability and automate delivery.
- Checkout & Compile: Jenkins pulls the latest code from VCS upon webhook invocation and compiles the Spring Boot application.
- Unit & Integration Testing: Executes unit tests via JUnit/Mockito and data-layer integration tests using Testcontainers (spinning up ephemeral databases matching production).
- Cross-Platform Build & Package: If tests pass, Jenkins uses
docker buildxto build the multi-architecture container images. - Registry Push: The images are pushed to a centralized Docker container registry, ready for Watchtower to pull.
This project was built from the ground up by a collaborating team operating under the Shumisoft GitHub organization.
Given the lean team size, we optimized our Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for rapid iteration, high-bandwidth communication, and strict task ownership over heavy bureaucratic processes:
- Agile Task Management: We utilized Trello to track sprints, manage the product backlog, and strictly define the scope of our MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
- Rapid Iteration: Operating as a tight-knit unit allowed us to bypass formal PR reviews in favor of synchronous pair-programming sessions and direct code integrations, drastically speeding up the development cycle.
- Full-Stack Ownership: Both engineers took cross-functional ownership of the stack, contributing to the Angular frontend, Spring Boot backend, and the underlying Jenkins/Docker deployment pipelines.