Joe Walling

1
Effective Software Development

• Joe Walling
• Computer Software Innovations
• Refreshments Sponsored by MDI

2
As a software developer, what ONE thing are you
being paid to do by your company or client?

• Note that I am not looking for one thing that you
  do, but THE ONE thing that all the others are
  there to support.
• Fill out the note card with your answer.

3
As a software developer, what ONE thing are you
being paid to do by your company or client?

• Make the company moneyor more specifically,
  impact the companys bottom line in a positive
  manner.

4
What Happens if You Dont?

• The company realizes how you are impacting the
  bottom line and

5
What Happens if You Dont?

• The company realizes how you are impacting the
  bottom line and
• The company is not competitive and loses money
  and has layoffs or outsources and

6
What Happens if You Dont?

• The company realizes how you are impacting the
  bottom line and
• The company is not competitive and loses money
  and has layoffs or outsources and
• Company goes out of business

7
How You Can Impact the Bottom Line

• Create software that
• Helps the company make more money
• Saves the company money
• Allows the company to provide better customer
  service which will in turn result in more sales
  and income for the company
• Create software more quickly
• Create more robust software in the same amount of
  time
• Reduce support costs of software

8
What You Can Do

• Write only the code that makes sense for you to
  write
• Infrastructure (plumbing) vs. domain specific
• YAGNI
• Open source software
• Purchase components

9
What You Can Do

• Write only code that makes sense to write
• Reuse code
• Centralized code snippets
• Project and item templates

10
What You Can Do

• Write only code that makes sense to write
• Reuse code
• Use tools that reduce your work
• Object oriented data persistence
• Control layout
• Control data binding
• Defining a consistent look and feel for
  application

11
What You Can Do

• Write only code that makes sense to write
• Reuse code
• Use tools that reduce your work
• Use a framework for your infrastructure
• SCSF
• Automated recipes
• Guidance
• Generated code
• Reference apps
• Your own possibly pieced together from oss and
  purchased
• Mere Mortals
• Strataframe

12
Internally Developed Framework

• Pros
• Source code

13
Grow Your Own

• Pros
• Simple
• You understand it
• You have the source code
• Cons
• Untested
• Unmaintainable
• Undocumented
• Inflexible
• Not scalable
• What if something happens to you?

14
CABSCSF

• Pros
• Widely accepted architecture that came from MS
  PP
• Extensible
• Testable includes Dependency Inversion
  Container
• Open source
• Developer community
• There arent many alternatives
• Cons
• Too complex
• Hard to debug

15
Lets Develop Something

• Simple smart client application
• Runs as a single user application
• Database is SQL Server 2005
• Must have the VS2005 look
• Splash screen
• About Box
• Provide basic scheduling functionality
• Provide the capability to search for contacts and
  display the results in a grid
• Below the grid provide a means to edit all
  contact information. This detail info should be
  bound to the same data as is displayed in the
  selected row of the grid.

16
Demo

• Use project templates to create the framework of
  the application

17
Demo

• Use project templates to create the framework of
  the application
• Develop the database

18
Demo

• Use project templates to create the framework of
  the application
• Develop the database
• Use Ideablade to generate the business objects

19
Demo

• Use project templates to create the framework of
  the application
• Develop the database
• Use Ideablade to generate the business objects
• Use Devexpress for the consistent look and feel

20
Demo

• Use project templates to create the framework of
  the application
• Develop the database
• Use Ideablade to generate the business objects
• Use Devexpress for the consistent look and feel
• Use Devexpress for the Scheduling form

21
Demo

• Use project templates to create the framework of
  the application
• Develop the database
• Use Ideablade to generate the business objects
• Use Devexpress for the consistent look and feel
• Use Devexpress for the Scheduling form
• Use IdeaBlade to easily layout controls and bind
  them

22
Spec Change

• Need to be able to work disconnected
• They want the application to be blue
• Provide a means for validating the data and
  showing invalid data.

23
Demo

• How to change the skin so all forms now take on
  the blue flat style

24
Demo

• How to change the skin so all forms now take on
  the blue flat style
• Add the code for working disconnected

25
Demo

• How to change the skin so all forms now take on
  the blue flat style
• Add the code for working disconnected
• Add some validation code and show how errors can
  be displayed

26
Tips

• Its not about how much code you write or how
  cool the software you wrote isit is all about
  the almighty dollar.
• Spend time educating yourself on these new
  technologies and trends. There is a lot more to
  .NET development than the .NET framework
• Step outside your comfort zone and learn more
  about architecture, patterns, and test driven
  development.

27
References

• Ideablade - http//www.ideablade.com/Cabana/cabana
  .html
• Microsoft Patterns and Practices -
  http//msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/practices/default
  .aspx
• Guidance Automation Toolkit - http//msdn2.microso
  ft.com/en-us/practices/aa718948.aspx
• Jeremy Miller - http//codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy
  .miller/default.aspx
• DeveXpress - http//www.devexpress.com/Products/NE
  T/