Chapter 6. SNAP Builds aka Integration Builds
One technology that Microsoft has developed that I have not seen at any other customer site is the SNAP build system. After reading this chapter, you might say, "Our group does these types of builds, but we call them integration or continuous builds." That is fine; call it whatever you like. I have seen similar tools at some customer sites, but none is fully automated or developed as well as the SNAP system. Perhaps it is because Microsoft has been using this system for years and has put so many resources into getting it right. When customers ask me how they can ease the pain of merging code from various locations or teams, I think of SNAP. If there is such a magic tool that does merges, this would be it. I view this tool as an advanced technology or step in a build process. A group really needs to master the other points in this book before trying to adopt a SNAP build process. In this chapter, with the help of Bob Jervis the creator of the SNAP tool and provider of a lot of data, I explain how to set a tool like this up and detail some of the experiences we have had using it. If you ever plan on trying a continuous integration build system, the information in this chapter will be interesting to you. Microsoft does not currently sell this tool, and I don't know of many companies that sell something similar. In the future, Microsoft plans to ship a tool that is a variation of this tool. If you don't want to wait for Microsoft to ship this tool, you might consider developing your own SNAP tool. I outline the architecture and relative information so that you can create your own tool if you have the resources to do it. |