How MSN Builds Code

It's déjà vu all over again.

Yogi Berra

To show you a recurring theme in this book on how software is developed and shipped at Microsoft, look at Figure I.2, where each of the teams in the Microsoft Network (MSN) group has the source, build system, drops, and build staff defined.

Figure I.2. Previous Build Process.

Looking at Figure I.3 on the following page, you can see how the new software development process has changed to a more central build process that builds and releases code developed by the three teams mentioned. This is an evolution that most companies ultimately face; the sooner you establish this central process, the better off you are. This book guides you on how to make this happen.

Figure I.3. New Build Process.

The processes at Microsoft are the same across the different product teams whether you are building an operating system, MSN (Microsoft Network) components, SBS (Small Business Server), or Visual Studio. The specific tools and mileage might vary, however.

As mentioned at the beginning of this Introduction, the processes talked about in this book scale up to the largest software project in the world (Windows) but also scale down to small team projects of about 40 to 100 developers. If you have 20 to 30 developers on your project and you never plan to grow, some of these topics might be overkill for what you are doing. On the other hand, failure is always an option if you do not consider any of the recommendations in this book but you plan on growing your group or team beyond 30 developers.

Finally, with technologies and tools always changing, I tried to write this book in a classic sense that is independent of the tools or language you are developing with so that you can use the processes and principles in this book no matter what platform you use.

Now let's join the other build knights and figure out how to save the king and queen (upper management making crazy promises) of the castle (corporation or business)...