Managing builds is crucial to the profitable delivery of high-quality software; however, the build process has been one of the least-understood stages of the entire development lifecycle. Now, one of Microsoft's leading software build experts introduces step-by-step best practices for maximizing the reliability, effectiveness, timeliness, quality, and security of every build you create.Drawing on his extensive experience working with Microsoft's enterprise and development customers, Vincent Maraia covers all facets of the build process-introducing techniques that will work on any platform, on projects of any size. Maraia places software builds in context, showing how they integrate with configuration management, setup, and even customer support. Coverage includes* How Microsoft manages builds: process flows, check-in windows, reporting status, and more* Understanding developer and project builds, pre- and post-build steps, clean builds, incremental builds, continuous integration builds, and more* Choosing the right build tools for your projects* Configuring source trees and establishing your build environment-introducing Virtual Build Labs (VBLs)* Planning builds for multiple-site development projects or teams* Determining what should (and shouldn't) be kept under source control* Managing versioning, including build, file, and .NET assembly versions* Using automation as effectively as possible* Securing builds: a four layer approach-physical, tracking sources, binary/release bits assurance, and beyondBuilds powerfully impact every software professional: developers, architects, managers, project leaders, configuration specialists, testers, and release managers. Whatever your role, this book will help you implement a smoother, faster, more effective build process-and use it to deliver better software.