Build Engineering: What It Is and Why You Need It

I recently traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to give a talk about Build Engineering.  The talk was titled, “Build & Infrastructure Engineering: What It Is and Why You Need It”.  It covers the history of the Build & Release Engineering area at Unity (from 2014 to the current state in 2014), and then follows with an overview and introduction to the “5 Pillars of Build Engineering” and what they mean in

What Makes a Good Build Engineer?

In a previous post, I wrote about what build engineers actually do.  A related question is, “What makes a good build engineer?” Obviously this is subjective, but I can share my opinions based on my particular skillsets that are useful in my job as a build engineer, and the qualities I look for in prospective candidates when looking to expand my team. When trying to answer this question, an important thing

What do Build Engineers Actually *Do* all Day Long?

The responses to this stack overflow question I stumbled upon made me realize that many people may not actually understand what build engineers actually do.  Being a build engineer myself, I’d like to share my view. The definition of build engineering of course changes from organization to organization.  From my perspective, a build engineer’s role is simple: our job is to keep the wheels turning.  And as software solutions grow in size

Linux @ GDC 2013

I spent last week in San Francisco at GDC 2013.  While I was there, I spent most of my time working in the Unity booth, answering questions about Unity (I was happy to see that Linux support is a hot topic this year).  I did, however, do a brief interview with Nixie Pixel about Linux support in Unity.

How to Choose a Distributed Version Control System

So it’s has come time for your team to pick a new version control system. Perhaps your team has outgrown the CVS server or maybe someone lost the keys to your Vault server. Or maybe someone has wised up to the idea that backing up software by creating zip files and storing on a network fileshare (yes I’ve seen this — oh, the horror) doesn’t work so well. In any case, you’ve decided you