Several Microsoft ways that work and you can learn from

While many people bash Microsoft for what they consider the dubious quality of their software products, there is no question that they must have an efficient configuration management system. With so many designers, developers and testers working on any single product, it would be very easy for any software development project to descend into chaos. Since Microsoft does manage to push new products out the door on a regular basis, they have to do a great deal right in the area of configuration management.
This book describes the Microsoft experience and strategies they use in managing their product build, testing, customer support and service pack cycles. There is also a chapter on some ways to change the corporate culture and the final chapter describes future build tools that will be released by Microsoft.
A great deal of the Microsoft experience is certainly expected, believable and worthy of emulating. Whatever the size of your development teams, the best way to learn efficient and effective ways of configuration management is to study what the biggest teams do. If they can do it efficiently then by copying them, you can get that same efficiency and perhaps squeeze it a little tighter due to your reduced size.

Other Reviews

• Rather Useless
• The Build Master
• Several Microsoft ways that work and you can learn from
• A very useful book