a project automation tool that builds upon the concepts of Apache Ant and Apache Maven and introduces a Groovy-based domain-specific language [DSL] instead of the more traditional XML form of declaring the project configuration.
Unlike Apache Maven, which defines lifecycles, and Apache Ant, where targets are invoked based upon a depends-on partial ordering, Gradle uses a directed acyclic graph ("DAG") to determine the order in which tasks can be run.
Gradle was designed for multi-project builds which can grow to be quite large, and supports incremental builds by intelligently determining which parts of the build tree are up-to-date, so that any task dependent upon those parts will not need to be re-executed.
Source: gradle.org | Wikipedia
