If you think any tool can't handle this better than you are woefully misinformed. I was doing this method back in 2006, let me assure you that the automated to

If you think any tool can't handle this better than you are woefully misinformed. I was doing this method back in 2006, let me assure you that the automated tools available today make this look like amateur hour. Automatic schema transactions, automatic up/down scripts, automatic detection that a schema change hasn't been committed. Automatic change tracking table in the db. Ability to seed a database with test data. With a single command I can go back to any arbitrary point of changes, switch branch, work on a bug fix, switch back to dev and the next time I fire up the Dev site it'll automatically redeploy the new changes. Just streets ahead of hand coded scripts. Yes, there's a learning curve, yes you have to pay attention to your design still, but it is so good. I was skeptical at first, but honestly I'm never going back and I don't miss it. I'm using Entity Framework Migrations, I assume other languages have similar/better tools.