Author: Erik Dietrich
I'm a passionate software developer and active blogger. Read about me at my site.
Managing Code Analysis Statistics with the NDepend API
August 4, 2016 3 minutes read If you’re familiar with NDepend, you’re probably familiar with the Visual Studio plugin, the out of the box metrics, the excellent visualization tools, and...
How to Deliver Software Projects on Time
July 28, 2016 3 minutes read Someone asked me recently, almost in passing, about the keys to delivering software projects on time. In this particular instance, it was actually a...
Static Analysis Isn’t Just for Techies
July 21, 2016 2 minutes read I do a lot of work with and around static analysis tools. Obviously, I write for this blog. I also have a consulting practice...
Avoid Technical Debt with NDepend
July 14, 2016 2 minutes read The term “technical debt” has become ubiquitous in the programming world. In the most general sense, it reflects the idea that you’re doing something...
Easy to Miss Code Smells
July 7, 2016 2 minutes read The concept of a code smell is, perhaps, one of the most evocative in our profession. The name itself has a levity factor to...
How to Get an Edge as an IT Management Consultant
June 30, 2016 2 minutes read I’ve made no secret of, and even frequently referred to my consulting practice including aspects of IT management consulting. In short, one of my...
How to Analyze a Complex Solution
June 23, 2016 2 minutes read I’ve made no secret that I spend a lot of time these days analyzing code bases as a consultant, and I’ve also made no...
Enforcing Immutability in Multi-Threaded Projects with NDepend
June 16, 2016 2 minutes read Early in the days of object oriented programming, we really got a lot of mileage out of the language and paradigm features. For instance,...
5 Habits that Help Code Quality
June 9, 2016 2 minutes read When I’m called in to do a strategic assessment of a codebase, it’s never the result of everything being awesome. That is, no one...
How to Get Developers to Adopt Coding Standards
June 2, 2016 2 minutes read If you’re a manager, there’s a decent chance that the subject of coding standards makes you want to bang your head against a wall...
Managing Risk in your Project with Static Analysis
May 26, 2016 2 minutes read When software developer talk about static analysis, it’s often in the context of craft improvement. Ask most developers in a group about static analysis...
Static Analysis and The Other Kind of False Positives
May 19, 2016 2 minutes read A common complaint and source of resistance to the adoption of static analysis is the idea of false positives. And I can understand this....
4 Ways Custom Code Metrics Improve A Development Team
May 12, 2016 2 minutes read One of the things that has surprised me over the years is how infrequently people take advantage of custom code metrics. I say this...
The Biggest Mistake Static Analysis Could Have Prevented
May 5, 2016 2 minutes read As I’ve probably mentioned before, many of my clients pay me to come do assessments of their codebases, application portfolios and software practice. And,...
5 Reasons Architects and Developers Don’t Get Along
April 28, 2016 1 minutes read There’s a cute term for a blog post or article that advertises, in its title, a number of points of interest. For example, “9...
Improve Your Code Review Game with NDepend
April 21, 2016 3 minutes read Code review is a subject with which I’m quite familiar. I’m familiar first as a participant, both reviewing and being reviewed, but it goes...
The Power of CQLinq for Developers
April 14, 2016 2 minutes read I can still remember my reaction to Linq when I was first exposed to it. And I mean my very first reaction. You’d think, as...
Let’s Build a Metric: Wrapping Up
April 7, 2016 1 minutes read In the penultimate post in the metrics series, I explained the reasoning for winding down this series. I also talked about performing one last...
How to Add Static Analysis to Your Development Process
March 31, 2016 2 minutes read As a consultant, one of the more universal things that I’ve observed over the years is managerial hand-waving. This comes in a lot with the...
Legacy Code for Developers: Managing your Manager
March 24, 2016 2 minutes read Here’s a campfire horror story of legacy code that probably sounds at least somewhat familiar. One day, your manager strolls by casually, sipping a...
Static Analysis for Small Business
March 10, 2016 1 minutes read I was asked recently, kind of off the cuff, whether I thought that static analysis made sense for small business. I must admit that...
A Manager’s Guide to Legacy Code
March 3, 2016 2 minutes read If you have a sadistic streak and manage a team of software developers, it’s probably high entertainment to dredge up some old, dusty piece...
NDepend vs. ReSharper
February 25, 2016 1 minutes read Not too long ago, someone asked me for a comparison of ReSharper (commonly and affectionately abbreviated R#) and NDepend. I didn’t really grok the...
Let’s Build a Metric Reconsidered
February 18, 2016 2 minutes read If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll noticed that it’s been a while since the last post in this series. In case you’d forgotten or...
Bridging the Communication Gap Between Developers and Architects
February 12, 2016 1 minutes read If you want to set off a ceaseless, spirited discussion, ask a roomful of people what makes some music good and other music bad....
Put a Little NDepend in your Visual Studio
February 4, 2016 1 minutes read The software development world is filled with what I think of as “Coke-Pepsi” debates. This is how my brain categorizes debates over preference that...
Calculating the ROI of NDepend
January 28, 2016 3 minutes read Years ago, I discovered NDepend and downloaded it for a trial. At the time, I found myself working in a .NET shop where a...
That Code’s Not Dead – It Went To a Farm Upstate… And You’re Paying For It
January 21, 2016 2 minutes read When it comes to pets, there’s a heartbreaking lie that parents often tell little children when they believe that those children are not yet...
The Case for the NDepend Dashboard Feature
January 14, 2016 2 minutes read If you hang around agile circles long enough, you’re quite likely to hear the terms “big, visible chart” and “information radiator.” I think both...
Visualizing Your (Real) Software Architecture
January 11, 2016 1 minutes read Diagrams of software architecture have a certain aesthetic appeal to them. They usually consist of grayscale or muted pastel colors and nice, soft shapes with...