--- title: "FinalBuilder is approaching version 4, and still the coolest build tool out there" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2005/10/31/finalbuilder-is-approaching-version-4-and-still-the-coolest.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2005/10/31/finalbuilder-is-approaching-version-4-and-still-the-coolest.html" published: "2005-10-31T12:34:00" updated: "2005-10-31T12:34:00" tags: ["Cool Tools"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "If you haven't heard of FinalBuilder yet, there's no better time than now. Especially with Microsoft's new \"If you want a build process, you'll wanna get VSTS\" way of doing things. In short, it the most usable and…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # FinalBuilder is approaching version 4, and still the coolest build tool out there By Roy Osherove October 31, 2005 In [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) **Historical article** · Originally published October 31, 2005; technical details may be outdated. If you haven't heard of [FinalBuilder](http://www.finalbuilder.com/) yet, there's no better time than now. Especially with Microsoft's new "If you want a build process, you'll wanna get VSTS" way of doing things. In short, it the most usable and powerful Build engine and process configuration tool I've used, and I'm not the only one loving it. [Joel On Software has kind words for it](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/news/20020813.html), as does [Mike Gunderloy](http://larkware.com/Reviews/FinalBuilder3.html)(larkware) The main things I like about it: - The visual way of doing things (since build configuration is not simple - you are actually documenting your company's process of doing things) including changing and updating it. it makes it easier to "get" for newcomers and it's not as scary in first glance, even for really big project (I've used it on a .NET solution with 120 sub projects with success. Wasn't easy, but the fact that it was doable at all and actually maintainable after the fact is very good) - They keep updating the product in new and wonderful ways. For example, the current product is in version 3, and version 4 is just around the corner. The have an active customer forum and all questions seem to be answer as fast as possible. Not only that, requests by customers are heard and sometimes features are put in just because some customer came up with a good scenario for them. - They [have developer blogs](http://blogs.finalbuilder.com/). They get it. The blogs talk about what's coming up in version 4 and that's pretty cool. - It has tasks that support practically anything you can think of. It's almost like visual programming. - It's extensible using .NET so if you want a task that's not there, you can create one pretty easily. The way I see it, the fact that Microsoft has MSBuild and the team build server, they should be at least up to par with the folks from FinalBuilder, and right now that's not the case. You may wonder why I'm gushing, but that shouldn't surprise you, I've done it [before](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/articles/resharper.aspx). When I like something, I just like it. No hidden agenda. Yes, I do get review copies of software, including this one. Sometimes they're just this good. ## Lessons on this topic - [Why FinalBuilder?](https://courses.osherove.com/courses/automating-all-the-things-with-finalbuilder/why-finalbuilder/) · Automating All the Things with FinalBuilder ## More in Cool Tools [All posts in Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) - Nov 12, 2005 ### [Test Driven .NET's new version supports all versions of VS 2005 including Express](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/11/12/test-driven-nets-new-version-supports-all-versions-of-vs-200.html) - Nov 3, 2005 ### ["Ask The Pros" article about favorite .NET addins at VisualStudioHacks.Com](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/11/3/quotask-the-prosquot-article-about-favorite-net-addins-at-vi.html) - Oct 30, 2005 ### [Amazoner 1.0.1 - Larger Images for Books and a dedicated website](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/10/30/amazoner-101-larger-images-for-books-and-a-dedicated-website.html) - Oct 19, 2005 ### [Introducing Amazoner: Create Amazon Associate Links with ease](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/10/19/introducing-amazoner-create-amazon-associate-links-with-ease.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/