OK, replying to myself -- bad form, but here's what I've got so far:

   * Added some maven.xml goals to wrapup multiproject goals
   * Added multiproject to continuum (failed with NPEs until I added 
xmlns attribute to project element)
   * Adjusted the scm url (CVS) of the project to the directory one 
level above the build module.
   * Adjusted the build definition POM filename ("Relative path of the 
POM file") to "build/project.xml"
  
Continuum is successfully checking out the whole multiproject structure 
but chokes with:
   org.apache.maven.continuum.execution.ContinuumBuildExecutorException: 
Could not find Maven project descriptor.

If I go behind the scenes of continuum, into this projects working 
directory, and execute "maven -p build/project.xml project:clean" maven 
reports success. So it appears a POM relative path is not working.

Doug Douglass wrote:

> First off, where do you guys get all the time to release these 
> projects? Between m2 2.0 and continuum 1.0, how much sleep have you 
> been getting. Not that I'm complaining ;) Well done!
>
> Just up and running with continuum and I've dropped in two m1 
> projects: one a simple project, the other a multiproject where the 
> root POM is in the parent directory of modules.
>
> I'd now like to drop in a larger multiproject where the root POM is in 
> a sibling directory to the actual modules (yes, because we're using 
> eclipse on this project ;). The "Getting Started" mentions a "special" 
> goal in maven.xml. On larger (for us) projects we often write custom 
> goals like project:build, project:clean, that just wrapup standard 
> goals. But this "special" goal will have to go beyond what we usually 
> do, for example I presume it will have to do a scm:checkout and/or 
> scm:update to grab the modules. Any hints? examples?
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Doug