The key to successful build management is a foundational commitment to consistency, repeatability, and portability. This is true for small, homogeneous development environments using in-house, scripted build systems, as it is for large, complex environments, where a new class of non-scripted, distributed build-management tool is now available. Build administrators who plan ahead can optimize the process of manual build scripting that will enable significantly more flexible and manageable development environments regardless of platform diversity.