Get best-in-class engineering practices to help you write more-robust, bug-free code. Two Microsoft .NET development experts share real-world examples and proven methods for optimizing the software development life cycle from avoiding costly programming pitfalls to making your development team more efficient. Managed code developers at all levels will find design, prototyping, implementation, debugging, and testing tips to boost the quality of their code today. Optimize each stage of the development process from design to testing and produce higher-quality applications. Use metaprogramming to reduce code complexity, while increasing flexibility and maintainability Treat performance as a feature and manage it throughout the development life cycle Apply best practices for application scalability Employ preventative security measures to ward off malicious attacks Practice defensive programming to catch bugs before run time Incorporate automated builds, code analysis, and testing into the daily engineering process Implement better source-control management and check-in procedures Establish a quality-driven, milestone-based project rhythm and improve your results!

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 5 Ratings

Poor value - 2009-06-03
Reviewer Rating:
Poor value, watered-down treatment of topics, rehash of past material.

John Robbins gives a great foreword however, and the cover design is great with nice chapter quotes.

Visual Studio 2008 Team System is the minimum required software to work with the code.

Where's the beef? "Designing for Scale" was such a promising chapter, but instead offered platitudes and hardly solid advice. "Choose Scalable Application Designs: Design simple application architectures, Design to scale out, Partition data effectively..." And "Design Application Infrastructure to Scale: Load balance hardware..."

Disappointing title, as Writing Solid Code from 1993 was such a great (and aptly titled) book.

Better books IMHO:
* Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell
* Rapid Development by Steve McConnell
* Secure Coding by Mark C. Graff and Kenneth R. van Wyk
* Writing Solid Code by Steve Maguire (uses only C however)
* Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas

See for yourself, hopefully at your library or bookstore.

Essential for coding projects big or small - 2009-03-28
Reviewer Rating:
I spent several years building products and services for Microsoft and now manage product development at another company. The authors do a FANTASTIC job distilling the best practices of one of the top engineering companies on the planet. Well-written and very applicable to the development of any commercial-strength software product or service, big or small. I've bought several copies for my organization and made it mandatory reading.

A MUST read for any software developer - 2009-03-26
Reviewer Rating:
Anyone serious about writing performant, secure, and scalable code should read this book. Very well written and organized with appropriate emphasis on processes, planning, and prep to prevent letting "implementation drive design." As an industry veteran I've seen this happen way too many times. Kudos to the authors for stressing these important factors of great software design. Highly recommended.

Useful book! - 2009-08-03
Reviewer Rating:
It is a very interesting book if you are developer or manager. It gives a good overview of the whole coding process and most important of it: it is not boring!

You can read all chapters in a row, like I did, or pick up the ones that might interest you at a particular time.

A good reference and acquisition, defenitely.

Awesome! - 2009-04-10
Reviewer Rating:
This book is so helpful and insightful! I am a newbie to the industry and this really helped me understand the process. If you're new in a job, looking to brush up skills or even if you think you know it all - read this book and learn some more.