Ensure the Validate task produces a working stable project environment

[aldrichtr]

The Validate phase is one of the most important. It must set up the project so that all other tasks function properly.

It must set up the directories so that other tasks that produce output have the proper paths

• Validate task does not create necessary directories #34
  It should be resilient.
• Validate task throws an error if there are no commits yet #33
• Leverage the Initialize- functions to ensure the project is using the latest version of the build