DOWNLOAD: Automate your Visual Studio.NET build process

A point that isn't introduced in this download is that automated build can be implemented at many levels:

1. Daily Build. For shops that maintain a huge application or applications, a daily build is often used to keep everyone who works on pieces of the app on schedule - a daily 3 pm build, for instance, keeps people on their toes and makes sure they have their revised code checked in on time.

2. A shared automated build routine. Used locally but conforming to the other automated builds in use throughout a shop. Such a build may be specific to a particular developer's apps but is kept in sync with the other builds in use, in terms of the tests it employs and the steps it includes.

3. My build. Even a very local build - home-grown by each developer for personal use - is better than no automated build at all, because even if a one-shot, developer-specific build only benefits its creator, that build is still ensuring that the developer who uses it is completely consistent in maintaining and testing code.