Brownfield Application Development in .Net [Paperback]

Donald Belcham (Author), Kyle Baley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2010

Most software developers have inherited legacy or brownfield projects that require maintenance, incremental improvements, or even cleaning up the mess another programmer left behind.

Brownfield Application Development in .NET shows developers how to approach legacy applications with the state-of-the-art concepts, patterns, and tools developers apply to new projects. Using an existing application as an example, this book guides readers in applying the techniques and best practices they need to make a brownfield application more maintainable and receptive to change.

As the book proceeds, the authors introduce frameworks and tools commonly used today while still approaching the subject from a conceptual level so that you can substitute alternate tools as appropriate. Because the book is based on the authors' experiences, Brownfield Application Development in .NET moves beyond the theories and shows readers the techniques they need to be successful.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald Belcham is an independent contractor who has been developing applications for the public and private sectors of North America and the South Pacific since 2000. In those years he has built some green field applications, but more often than not he has inherited partially completed systems (brownfield) which were in dire need of resuscitation.

Kyle Baley has been developing applications since 1998 with a focus on web applications. He has built software for a number of industries, including transportation, telecommunications, private banking, oil and gas, online education, and hotels and hospitality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 550 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; Pap/Psc edition (April 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933988711
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988719
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,070,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chicken Soup for the Tormented Legacy app Dev's Soul :), May 27, 2011

By 

Jeno Laszlo - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brownfield Application Development in .Net (Paperback)

I am a huge fan of technical books published by Manning. The Brownfield Application Development in .Net book is very useful for developers who work on Brownfield projects and one of my favourites. It is technically accurate, but I personally gained most from the chapters which explained the politics and participants of a Brownfield project. The "stories from the trenches" sections were fun to read and often made me smirk.

I started reading this book while I was working on a Brownfield application project. I knew from the start of the project that the task will be challenging. This book helped to maintain a positive attitude and gather my wits when the project became depressing. Sometimes it is just good to know that someone, somewhere were in a similar situation before and prevailed.

I wish there were more books like this; there are just a few enjoyable books about Software Ecosystem. Software Ecosystem in relation to Legacy / Brownfield apps is often misunderstood and usually documented by academics and not practitioners.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked it!, March 31, 2011

By 

David Noderer (Deerfield Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brownfield Application Development in .Net (Paperback)

I've been meaning to read this book for a while and finally did!!

Don't let the title fool you, it could have been "Modern Object Oriented development with .NET". In the context of improving an existing active project (brownfield) this books walks you through separation of concerns, isolating dependencies, test driven development and many other concepts in a very practical and easy to understand way.

They also cover many of the political, cultural and personality issues you will face working with any company or team and suggest ways to work around, mitigate and sell new ideas into a situation. It is very easy to go with the flow but having the confidence to buck the flow on occasion can be a big win for everyone!

This was a good book for me. I was trained as an electrical engineer and spent 20 years designing computers before taking a turn into application development 17 years ago. I read constantly, listen to podcasts and hang around a lot of very smart people so have picked up most of the modern software design patterns. The advantage of applying particular patterns is not always clear so it takes a while to work new things into my development methodology.. mostly a good thing.

I thought the book did a good job of putting many concepts into a more comprehensive context than is normally presented. This approach has given me many good ideas about how I can better apply the techniques and motivation to investigate a few things I have ignored.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read for professional developers, December 29, 2010

By 

steven corbin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brownfield Application Development in .Net (Paperback)

I started reading this book and felt I was hearing a summary of my current project(which made me feel good, I am not alone). After reading it I realized that I have never worked on a Greenfield project. The book has good tips and tricks for the real problems that developers deal with.