It has been over 2 years since I started my current job.  That's almost a personal record for me. 

It has been a dream job so far....  Start from scratch, work from home, boss of all technical aspects of the project including analysis, design and coding.

Anyway, the application has been live for 13 months and was given the version number 0.9.0 at that time.

13 months later, it stands at version 2.9.5  This has equated to ~20 updates. 

The version numbering scheme I used is based on the following...

• An Application patch cause a 0.0.1 increment
• A Database Patch causes a 0.0.2 increment
• Increased Application Functionality causes a 0.0.3 increment
• Additional non view or non table object additions cause a 0.0.4 increment
• Additional view or table objects in the database cause a 0.1.0 increment.

Probably not the best method, but at least it has some structure.

As you can tell, schema changes have been frequent.  Managing schema change in live environments is fraught with issues.

Initially, I was using a combination of date stamped SQL scripts and version control.  And to be frank, I am sick of it.

So I set off to purchase a schema management tool.

I trialed the following:

• Redgate's SQL Compare
• Idera's DM
• Innovartis DBGhost
• SQL Delta

After a short evaulation period, there was one clear winner...... SQL Delta.

It does schema and data
It is fast
It is light weight
It does NOT rely on SQL DMO or SMO
It does NOT rely on the .NET framework
It has perpetual upgrades
It is cheap
It can store schemas locally for "off-line" comparisons.
It is simple to use

Of course it may not be for everyone, but was perfect for me...