Case Study: Sevensteps Uses Automated Build Studio as a Build and Deployment Solution

Sevensteps develops products to capture and share the knowledge of Subject Matter Experts. All of their software is based on a comon generic engine but each individual product differs in edit-screens, publication formats and visual design. Those differences are implemented in the software itself through the use of Delphi and the accompanying XSL files. Building and deploying the Sevensteps knowledge products proved to be a tough task, so they turned to Automated Build Studio as a solution.

Searching for a Build and Deployment Solution

Sevensteps searched for a build and deployment solution on the internet, however already being an AQtime user, they didn't need to look much further than Automated Build Studio. "After finding that Automated Build Studio offered us everything that we could ever want, the choice was easy. We downloaded the trial and used it for about three weeks and were completely amazed with its ease of use, support for the development products we use, ease of creating variations in build scripts and other powerful features. It was very easy to set up the automated build and deployment processes," said Bart Roozendaal, from Sevensteps.

Life Before Automated Build Studio

Bart said, "Before Automated Build Studio it took us about one work day to build and deploy our products to our partners and a lot of times we had to redo steps in the manual process because they were forgotten. Automated Build Studio is a no-brainer for these types of issues and we no longer have to deal with a manual weekly build process. Now, with Automated Build Studio we don't miss deadlines or deploy the wrong build setup to one of our partners. Also, we save one work day every week that we now spend on further development rather than dealing with a manual deployment process. To me, that's a great argument for purchasing any product."

Automating the Build Process

"Automated Build Studio enabled us to completely automate the build process, integrating our SVN source control system, Delphi, Wise for our packaging and log all automatic builds in our error tracking database, FogBugz," said Bart.

Sevensteps uses Automated Build Studio for two main development processes:

1. Upon checking files into the SVN repository, the code is compiled to see if it is syntactically correct. If not, the developers are notified using an e-mail notification from Automated Build Studio.
2. Every week all products that are commercially available through partners are built automatically from scratch. All code is compiled, supporting files gathered, setups built and distributed to a web server for download. Builds are logged into FogBugz and the partners are notified about a new build.

"We also use Automated Build Studio to rebuild Delphi packages when we switch development lines and we even use it as an hourly check for checked in code."

Quicker Reaction to User Requests

Bart said, "Now, in a maximum of one week any new functionality in our software is available to our partners. This means that we can instantly react to specific user requests, which is another great benefit of using Automated Build Studio."

Sevensteps Recommends Automated Build Studio

Bart noted, "If you are looking for a complete build and deployment solution, don't look any further!"