Design-Build-Run

The purpose of the source code supplied with this book is to provide you with a basis for further review and update. I've reviewed many projects throughout my career and the source code provided is not intended to conform to all the messages and practices discussed in the book. It is intended to provide you with an example of a work-in-progress project. Your task, should you wish to accept it, is to review the solution against the practices discussed in the book. As with any code or project review, you will need understand what is in place and keep a list of the items you need to implement. You'll need to prioritize them according to your goals and then ascertain how long each of them will take to implement. You can use this information to produce a cost-benefit analysis. Even with a small amount of code, there are many items that you can improve.

As you progress through your review, you will find that there are entire components (pages, web services, and classes) that will need to be implemented. There are components that will need to be enhanced or replaced, and tests that will need to be updated or removed. You will also need to update the comments based on your findings to help you better understand the solution. All the preceding items simply reinforce the messages in the book - the more that you can do upfront the easier the remainder of the project will be. It is not worth getting into a situation where a late-breaking review highlights many areas that need to be addressed or, worse, highlights a complete re-think and/or re-write.

There is no "school solution" for this activity; it is simply up to you whether you want to perform the review. It is actually more important for you to perform these review activities against your own projects and solutions, and determine what you should implement. However, if you are just starting out, this activity will help you to better understand what can be involved in late-breaking reviews and production-ready updates to a work-in-progress solution. It will also help you to understand the basic tools and their usage.

--Dave Ingram