Brownfield Application Development in .NET

by Kyle Baley, Kyle Baley

Most software developers have inherited legacy or brownfield projects thatrequire maintenance, incremental improvements, or even cleaning up the messanother programmer left behind. Brownfield Application Development in .NET shows developers how toapproach legacy applications with the state-of-the-art concepts, patterns, andtools developers apply to new projects. Using an existing application as anexample, this book guides readers in applying the techniques and best practicesthey need to make a brownfield application more maintainable and receptive tochange. As the book proceeds, the authors introduce frameworks and tools commonlyused today while still approaching the subject from a conceptual level so thatyou can substitute alternate tools as appropriate. Because the book is based onthe authors' experiences, Brownfield Application Development in .NETmoves beyond the theories and shows readers the techniques they need to besuccessful. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Genres: Programming, Coding, Software

390 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2009

Reviews

[Vladimir · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book. Seems it's my destiny to work everywhere in brownfield projects :-) When I finished this book I'd wanted to cry: "Why I didn't read it at the start of my career!". The book describes many painful situations that we are faced while dealing with the old applications. I'd say even more, the book explains to us how we should maintain and improve brownfield projects.
Hard to realize that I've obtained it through trial and errors. But we always know important things too late, don't we?
On the whole it's a brilliant book especially for newbies who just started with a brownfield application.

[Craig Vermeer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love most about this book is that it paints a coherent picture of a certain style of software development that I very much agree with, and that's one that focuses on maintainable, well-factored code and in as low-friction of an environment as possible.

This is not to say that most developers don't care about writing good code, but many don't have a good picture of what that can look like or *why* they may want to change what they're doing now. I think this book can help in that regard.

[Gleb Sevruk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read it in one go in half of a day! It enjoyable and practical.

Some of the concept are known, but I think this is must read for every .Net developer and team player.

If you already read "Dependency Injection in .Net" and "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" and looking for next book - this is the best choice.

Only one thing is not obvious: why it is not so popular?

[Machine Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about refactoring and basic design pattern. Donald use 'small-step' approach to fix the software contamination, which cause the software to become 'Brownfield'.

The good part of this book is source code that can download from manning site. because it's show you a 'before-after' code when you use the practice from this book and you can use that code to guide you to the present/next project that you're working.

I recommend this book for every developer (not just .NET developer) because the main part of this book is concept of design and attitude about software development, code is only use for example and teach you some refactoring/layering technique.

[Einar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this book hard to review. It's full of good intentions, and I certainly think all .NET developers should be aware of the topics it covers. However, if you have a few years worth of experience and you care a bit about your craft, then you're likely to have stumbled upon these things in books and blogs already. The coverage is fairly shallow, so you won't gain many new insights, I'm afraid. On the other hand, if you're fairly fresh, this book is gold. It's a good book to put on a list of mandatory reads for junior developers.

[Siim Viikman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about refactoring project to a better state, all advice applies also to greenfield projects. Although, it's a good read, it is better suited for people who has less experience in the field.