Acknowledgments

At some point early in 2012, my friend Chris Shaw innocuously asked me if I would be interested in writing. Chris and I were preparing for a presentation for a SQL event. I really thought that the question was simple. I had some articles at various SQL Server websites under my belt and had even just finished a series of three articles. It turned into much, much more.

As I was struggling with my early versions of my chapter, Allen Hirt went above and beyond the call of duty, as he volunteered to edit my document in its early stages. As an established author, he was profoundly helpful. I learned so much from him.

As other authors were working on their chapters, several of them spurred me on as they tweeted about their tasks via Twitter, reminding me of my own tasks. Special thanks go to my fellow authors Gail, Mladen, Chris, Grant, Jes, and Jonathan for their examples and pushes.

For years, I have tried to be like my heroes in the #SQLFamily who have gone before me with writing books, articles, blogs, and more. Thanks to Steve, Tom, Grant, Tim, and Brad. Thanks to the editors of the various websites and other resources who kept telling me to write. Thanks to each website that has published an article of mine and allowed me to practice this craft.

Thanks to each coworker, DBA, developer, project manager, and so on who helped me perfect this process of Release Management to the point that I could put all these actions and lessons to paper to describe a process I have grown to love and hate.

Thanks to all the fine folks at Apress who helped me along the way of creating this chapter. It was an experience I appreciate, and I am grateful for their expertise and assistance.

Super special thanks go out to the one person who had no idea how much he was helping me by kick-starting all my extracurricular activities. He happened to say the right thing at the right time that got me going. I will forever be grateful to Pat Wright for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

–TJay Belt

Thanks to Jonathan Gennick for giving me yet another project to do right after I finished my book Pro SQL Server 2012 Relational Database Design and Implementation.

Thanks to all of my MVP friends, who provide me with a plethora of new ideas, excellent examples, and horror stories that remind me that reality is often worse than any example that you can think of.

Thanks to the PASS Community for all of the opportunities to speak and get better at my craft over the past few years. SQL Saturday events have increased the number of speaking opportunities by orders of magnitudes, and the more people I get to speak to, the more I learn what they want to hear about.

–Louis Davidson

First, thanks to my wife, Danielle, for continuing to support me on this journey and listening to all of my technical conversations. Thanks to Jeremy Lowell for thinking of me when this opportunity came up and to Allan Hirt for reviewing the content and being a great sounding board. Lastly, thanks to everyone at Apress for putting together a great group of authors to share their industry expertise with the community. The strength of the SQL Server community starts with people giving back and sharing.

–Ben DeBow

Several of the great people you see on the cover of this book were already committed to this project when I was asked to take part. Looking at that list of amazing people, realizing that I could be a small part of it, I jumped at the chance. Thanks, guys, for all the learning and motivation you supply to our extended SQL family. All the fine folks at Apress have done another excellent job. Special thanks to Jonathan Gennick of Apress. I really appreciate every chance he has given me. I work for a great company at Red Gate, and I appreciate all that it does for me. Thanks Gareth, Ben, Neil, and Simon for all you’ve done to make it a fantastic place to work for, learn, and grow. Finally, thanks to my long-suffering family to whom I said I’d never write another book until next time. Well, next time came rather quickly.

–Grant Fritchey

Thanks to Jonathan Gennick for giving me the opportunity to write a chapter in this book, and to Anamika—what a job :-)

Special thanks to Morten for giving good input and helping with translation. Thanks to my wife for keeping me on my toes, and to my best friend, who woke me up from being a dusty DBA.

And thank you to all the wonderful people at Miracle and the Danish SQL Server user group that makes life exciting.

–Jesper Johansen

My chapter was made possible by the best clients any consultant can hope for. They continually present me with unique and challenging opportunities. All of the folks at Apress who helped me in writing my first chapter, ever—their professionalism is outstanding. Feedback from Richard Rodriguez, Chris Shaw, and Ben DeBow were instrumental in making this chapter relevant. Of course, I’d be remiss to not include my wonderful wife, who endured proofreading this a few times, and my six-year-old daughter, who makes it her mission to put a smile on my face. Thank you!

–Jeremy Lowell

Special thanks to Chris Shaw (@SQLShaw) for inspiring me to write. I’m sure he doesn’t realize it, but he has had a significant impact on my interest in writing and presenting. Thank you, Chris, for the opportunities you have opened up for me, my friend. I would also like to thank Allan Hirt (@SQLHA) for helping me pick up the pieces and for providing guidance on this path to authorship. He has been a friend, mentor, and teacher, and his time and experience has taught me many things. Finally, having the support of my family in my endeavors in the SQL community is a blessing I am honored to benefit from.

–Wendy Pastrick

I want to thank Tim Gorman for all his loving support as I embraced my first challenge as an author of published work. His emotional support, as someone who understands what I hope to accomplish and as my partner, is more than anyone could hope for in this life.

–Kellyn Pot’vin

I don’t want to let this opportunity go without saying thank you to my #SQLFamily for sharing ideas and opinions.

–Chris Shaw