Database Deployment

Stairway icons Database Deployments

Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 2 - Defining the Deployment Contract

  • Stairway Step

Level 2 formalizes the behavioral guarantees that a changeset must provide in order to be safely deployed and rolled back. It introduces the deployment contract, checkpoint semantics, and the structural scope of Create and Rollback scripts. Data changes are addressed through a dedicated Update mechanism, with clear boundaries and limitations. By the end of this level, a changeset becomes a predictable and well-defined unit that can be reasoned about independently of execution context.

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2026-05-06

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Stairway To Reliable Database Deployments

Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments

  • Stairway

This stairway addresses many of the issues that come about with ad hoc database deployment processes in many organizations. You will learn how to better architect and structure your processes to ensure a reliable database deployment for your applications.

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2026-04-15

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Stairway icons Database Deployments

Designing Database Changes Before Deployment: Level 1 of the Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments

  • Stairway Step

Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments introduces a progressive approach to managing database changes with clear intent, predictable rollback, and explicit behavioral guarantees. Starting from change design and moving toward execution and coordination in complex environments, the Stairway provides a conceptual framework for deploying database changes safely and consistently, independent of specific tools or automation platforms.

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2026-04-15

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External Article

Deploying Data and Schema Together with SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation

  • Article

You want to use SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation (SCA) to create or update a database, and at the same time ensure that its data is as you expect. You want to avoid running any additional PowerShell scripting every time you do it, and you want to keep everything in source control, including the data. You just want to keep everything simple. Phil Factor demonstrates how it's done, by generating MERGE scripts from a stored procedure.

2019-12-13

External Article

Deploying Data and Schema Together with SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation

  • Article

You want to use SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation (SCA) to create or update a database, and at the same time ensure that its data is as you expect. You want to avoid running any additional PowerShell scripting every time you do it, and you want to keep everything in source control, including the data. You just want to keep everything simple. Phil Factor demonstrates how it's done, by generating MERGE scripts from a stored procedure.

2019-12-10

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Question of the Day

Creating a JSON Document IV

I have this data in a table called dbo.NFLTeams 

TeamID  TeamName       City             YearEstablished
------  --------       ----             ---------------
1       Cowboys        Dallas           1960
2       Eagles         Philadelphia     1933
3       Packers        Green Bay        1919
4       Chiefs         Kansas City      1960
5       49ers          San Francisco    1946
6       Broncos        Denver           1960
7       Seahawks       Seattle          1976
8       Patriots       New England      1960
If I run this code, how many rows are returned? 
SELECT 
  YearEstablished,
  json_objectagg(city : TeamName)
FROM dbo.NFLTeams
GROUP BY  YearEstablished;

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