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Why a Book on .NET Best Practices?

Leave a comment Posted by Stephen D. Ritchie on December 10, 2011

I am a Microsoft .NET software developer. That explains why the book is about .NET best practices. That’s in my wheelhouse.

The more relevant question is, why a book about best practices?

When it comes right down to it, many best practices are the application of common sense approaches. However, there is something that blocks us from making the relatively simple changes in work habits that produce significant, positive results. I wanted to further explore that quandary. Unfortunately, common sense is not always common practice.

There is a gap between the reality that projects live with and the vision that the team members have for their processes and practices. They envision new and different practices that would likely yield better outcomes for their project. Yet, the project reality is slow to move or simply never moves toward the vision.

Tension between reality and vision

Many developers are discouraged by the simple fact that far too many projects compromise the vision instead of changing the reality. These two concepts are usually in tension. That tension is a source of great frustration and cynicism. I wanted to let people know that their project reality is not an immovable object, and the team members can be an irresistible force.

Part of moving your reality toward your vision is getting a handle on the barriers and objections and working to overcome them. Some of them are external to the team while others are internal to the team. I wanted to relate organizational behavior to following .NET best practices and to software development.

Knowledge

The team must know what to do. They need to know about the systematic approaches that help the individual and the team achieve the desired results. There are key practice areas that yield many benefits:

Automated builds
Automated testing
Continuous integration and delivery
Code analysis
Automated deployment

Of course, there is a lot of overlap in these areas. The management scientist might call that synergy. A common theme to these practice areas is the principle of automation. By acquiring knowledge in these practice areas you find ways to:

Reduce human error
Increase reliability and predictability
Raise productivity and efficiency

Know-how in these practice areas also raises awareness and understanding, creates an early warning system, and provides various stakeholders with a new level of visibility into the project’s progress. I wanted the reader to appreciate the significance and inter-relatedness of these key practice areas and the benefits each offers.

Skill

The team needs to know how to do it. Every new and different practice has a learning curve. Climbing that curve takes time and practice. The journey from newbie to expert has to be nurtured. There are no shortcuts that can sidestep the crawl-walk-run progression. Becoming skilled requires experience. Prototyping and building an archetype are two great ways to develop a skill. Code samples and structured walkthroughs are other ways to develop a skill. I wanted the book to offer an eclectic assortment of case studies, walkthroughs, and code samples.

Attitude

Team members must want to adopt better practices. Managers need to know why the changes are for the better, in terms managers can appreciate. The bottom line, it is important to be able to quantify the benefits of following new and different practices. It is also important to understand what motivates and what doesn’t. It helps to understand human biases. Appreciate the underlying principle that software projects are materially impacted by how well individuals interact. I wanted to highlight and communicate the best practices that relate to the human factors that include persuasion, motivation, and commitment.