What Is Hard Core Setup Engineering?

Hard Core Setup Engineering is the combination of the mindset that anything can and WILL be automated while preserving the long time principal of BulletProof Installs. After all any good setup package must accomplish two basic things: Install the product perfectly every time and be brain dead simple for the user to use. A poorly written package will be cursed while a wonderfully written one will be taken for granted. Sadly setup engineers are usually looked down at by their fellow developers. This kind of work is often seen as boring and unimportant - a minor necessary evil to be accomplished just before deployment. Very few developers understand how much a product can be improved when the integrated environment - including the setup package - is considered early on in the design phase of the application.