Case study from Mark Caldwell, SourceGear Vault customer

"I broke my own rules against using 'beta' software for production"

I'm a Software Engineering Manager at a flooring and interior design company, responsible for a small team of software developers. I set technical direction, but also actively develop alongside the other members of my team. I'm the acting DBA for the company, too.

We used to do source control for our database development work 'the hard way'. We developed through saved scripts, using a utility which could rapidly apply a folder full of scripts to a target database. Normally, this meant writing all the code by hand, rather than using the UI capabilities within SSMS, in order to ensure that we had the script to update the Test, Staging, and Production instances. If we ever did use the SSMS UI, we had to remember to use 'Generate Script' to produce a script file after–the–fact. There were, of course, a couple of times when a change was not captured to script and therefore wasn't included in the deployment package, which caused that deployment to fail testing.

With SQL Source Control, we can use any method of altering the development environment and leave the tracking of changes and scripting up to the tool. It also gives us a quick way to validate that any developer's working database is up–to–date with the latest version and, if not, to get it updated quickly. This is much easier than having to remember to run our manual update utility.

We have a particular need for source control because all our check–ins, whether changes to database code or UI code, have to be linked to work items, so that we know which request led to each change. SQL Source Control gives us a history of what has been done, so, with the DIFF tool built into Vault, we can quickly see exactly what changed, rather than relying on the developers to fully comment and document everything they do. It also provides us an opportunity to 'undo' changes, so developers are free to pursue creative solutions to tough problems. If they don't work out, they can easily restore their working environment to the last known good state.

SQL Source Control reduces the chance that a change is missed, which will help me be more confident. It also makes it easier to bring on temporary contract help, because I don't have to train them to 'do it our way'. They can use whatever development techniques they want, and SQL Source Control will catch the changes and queue them up to be checked–in.

Red Gate has been extremely good to work with while exploring the Early Access version and addressing my concerns. I like the product so much that I broke my own rules against using 'beta' software for production work and implemented it with my team early.

*SQL Source Control is now fully released - i.e. no longer in beta*