Background Problem Statement
Transition from developer based build process (distributed) to SCM based build process (centralized)
- For first 2+ years of development, all system builds done by developers without benefit of any kind of build scripts - all components built interactively
- Each subsystem lead performed builds for their group, and checked-in build products (.exe, .ocx, .dll, etc.) to common Release VOB
- As product size and complexity grew, this system was found to be awkward and error prone, often requiring several days to complete a system build
- “Build master” hired to improve process, without specific direction on how
Implementation of formal SCM practices 2+ years after start of development
- For some issues, had to trade benefit of starting over to do things “right” against minimizing impact during intensive development period
- Difficulty of getting OMAKE to work with MSDev generated makefiles (NMAKE)