Ruthlessly Helpful

For those who would like an overview of Pro .NET Best Practices, here’s a rundown on the book.

The book presents each topic by keeping in mind two objectives:  to provide reasonable breath and to go into depth on key practices. For example, the chapter on code analysis looks at both static and dynamic analysis, and it goes into depth with FxCop and StyleCop. The goal is to strike the balance between covering all the topics, discussing the widely-used tools and technologies, and having a reasonable chapter length.

Chapters 1 through 5 are focused on the context of new and different practices. Since adopting better practices is an initiative, it is important to know what practices to prioritize and where to uncover better practices within your organization and current circumstances.

Chapter 1: Ruthlessly Helpful

This chapter shows how to choose new and different practices that are better practices for you, your team, and your organization.

• Practice Selection
• Practicable
• Generally Accepted and Widely Used
• Valuable
• Archetypal
• Target Areas for Improvement
• Delivery
• Quality
• Relationships
• Overall Improvement
• Balance
• Renewal
• Sustainability
• Summary

Chapter 2: NET Practice Area

This chapter draws out ways to uncover better practices in the areas of .NET and general software development that provide an opportunity to discover or learn and apply better practices.

• Internal Sources
• Technical Debt
• Defect Tracking System
• Retrospective Analysis
• Prospective Analysis
• Application Lifecycle Management
• Patterns and Guidance
• Framework Design Guidelines
• Microsoft PnP Group
• Presentation Layer Design Patterns
• Object-to-Object Mapping
• Dependency Injection
• Research and Development
• Automated Test Generation
• Code Contracts
• Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle
• Summary

Chapter 3: Achieving Desired Results

This chapter presents practical advice on how to get team members to collaborate with each other and work toward a common purpose.

• Success Conditions
• Project Inception
• Out of Scope
• Diversions and Distractions
• The Learning/Doing Balance
• Common Understanding
• Wireframe Diagrams
• Documented Architecture
• Report Mockups
• Detailed Examples
• Build an Archetype
• Desired Result
• Deliverables
• Positive Outcomes
• Trends
• Summary

Chapter 4: Quantifying Value

This chapter describes specific practices to help with quantifying the value of adopting better development practices.

• Value
• Financial Benefits
• Improving Manageability
• Increasing Quality Attributes
• More Effectiveness
• Sources of Data
• Quantitative Data
• Qualitative Data
• Anecdotal Evidence
• Summary

Chapter 5: Strategy

This chapter provides you with practices to help you focus on strategy and the strategic implications of current practices.

• Awareness
• Brainstorming
• Planning
• Monitoring
• Communication
• Personal Process
• Commitment to Excellence
• Virtuous Discipline
• Effort and Perseverance
• Leverage
• Automation
• Alert System
• Experience and Expertise
• Summary

Chapters 6 through 9 are focused on a developer’s individual practices. These chapters discuss guidelines and conventions to follow, effective approaches, and tips and tricks that are worth knowing. The overarching theme is that each developer helps the whole team succeed by being a more effective developer.

Chapter 6: .NET Rules and Regulations

This chapter helps sort out the generalized statements, principles, practices, and procedures that best serve as .NET rules and regulations that support effective and innovative development.

• Coding Standards and Guidelines
• Sources
• Exceptions
• Disposable Pattern
• Miscellaneous
• Code Smells
• Comments
• Way Too Complicated
• Unused, Unreachable, and Dead Code
• Summary

Chapter 7: Powerful C# Constructs

This chapter is an informal review of the C# language’s power both to harness its own strengths and to recognize that effective development is a key part of following .NET practices.

• Extension Methods
• Implicitly Typed Local Variables
• Nullable Types
• The Null-Coalescing Operator
• Optional Parameters
• Generics
• LINQ
• Summary

Chapter 8: Automated Testing

This chapter describes many specific practices to improve test code, consistent with the principles behind effective development and automated testing.

• Case Study
• Brownfield Applications
• Greenfield Applications
• Automated Testing Groundwork
• Test Code Maintainability
• Naming Convention
• The Test Method Body
• Unit Testing
• Boundary Analysis
• Invalid Arguments
• Invalid Preconditions
• Fakes, Stubs, and Mocks
• Isolating Code-Under-Test
• Testing Dependency Interaction
• Surface Testing
• Automated Integration Testing
• Database Considerations
• Summary

Chapter 9: Build Automation

This chapter discusses using build automation to remove error-prone steps, to establish repeatability and consistency, and to improve the build and deployment processes.

• Build Tools
• MSBuild Fundamentals
• Tasks and Targets
• PropertyGroup and ItemGroup
• Basic Tasks
• Logging
• Parameters and Variables
• Libraries and Extensions
• Import and Include
• Inline Tasks
• Common Tasks
• Date and Time
• Assembly Info
• XML Peek and Poke
• Zip Archive
• Automated Deployment
• Build Once, Deploy Many
• Packaging Tools
• Deployment Tools
• Summary

Chapters 10 through 12 are focused on supporting tools, products, and technologies. These chapters describe the purpose of various tool sets and present some recommendations on applications and products worth evaluating.

Chapter 10: Continuous Integration

This chapter presents the continuous integration lifecycle with a description of the steps involved within each of the processes. Through effective continuous integration practices, the project can save time, improve team effectiveness, and provide early detection of problems.

• Case Study
• The CI Server
• CruiseControl.NET
• Jenkins
• TeamCity
• Team Foundation Server
• CI Lifecycle
• Rebuilding
• Unit Testing
• Analysis
• Packaging
• Deployment
• Stability Testing
• Generate Reports
• Summary

Chapter 11: Code Analysis

This chapter provides an overview of many static and dynamic tools, technologies, and approaches with an emphasis on improvements that provide continuous, automated monitoring.

• Case Study
• Static Analysis
• Assembly Analysis
• Source Analysis
• Architecture and Design
• Code Metrics
• Quality Assurance Metrics
• Dynamic Analysis
• Code Coverage
• Performance Profiling
• Query Profiling
• Logging
• Summary

Chapter 12: Test Framework

Chapter 12 is a comprehensive list of testing frameworks and tools with a blend of commercial and open-source alternatives.

• Unit Testing Frameworks
• Test Runners
• NUnit GUI and Console Runners
• ReSharper Test Runner
• Visual Studio Test Runner
• Gallio Test Runner
• xUnit.net Test Runner
• XUnit Test Pattern
• Identifying the Test Method
• Identifying the Test Class and Fixture
• Assertions
• Mock Object Frameworks
• Dynamic Fake Objects with Rhino Mocks
• Test in Isolation with Moles
• Database Testing Frameworks
• User Interface Testing Frameworks
• Web Application Test Frameworks
• Windows Forms and Other UI Test Frameworks
• Acceptance Testing Frameworks
• Testing with Specifications and Behaviors
• Business-Logic Acceptance Testing
• Summary

Chapter 13: Aversions and Biases

The final chapter is about the aversions and biases that keep many individuals, teams, and organizations from adopting better practices. You may face someone’s reluctance to accept or acknowledge a new or different practice as potentially better. You may struggle against another’s tendency to hold a particular view of a new or different practice that undercuts and weakens its potential. Many people resist change even if it is for the better. This chapter helps you understand how aversions and biases impact change so that you can identify them, cope with them, and hopefully manage them.

• Group-Serving Bias
• Rosy Retrospection
• Group-Individual Appraisal
• Status Quo and System Justification
• Illusory Superiority
• Dunning-Kruger Effect
• Ostrich Effect
• Gambler’s Fallacy
• Ambiguity Effect
• Focusing Effect
• Hyperbolic Discounting
• Normalcy Bias
• Summary