Best Practices in Architecture and .NET Development

Best practices represent proven methods and approaches that have established themselves in professional software development. They embody the collective knowledge of the developer community and help create high-quality, maintainable, and performant code.

In the .NET Ecosystem

This collection covers best practices across various areas including code quality with Clean Code and SOLID principles, architecture with design patterns and scalable solutions, testing strategies like TDD and quality assurance, DevOps practices with CI/CD pipelines and Azure DevOps automation, performance optimization techniques, and security-by-design approaches.

Best practices are not rigid rules but context-dependent guidelines that evolve with technology and should be critically evaluated.

Code Metrics and Configuration: Beyond the Numbers Game

Code metrics have become a standard feature in modern development environments, yet their implementation and interpretation often leave much to be desired. While Visual Studio and .NET provide comprehensive code metrics analysis, the way these metrics are configured, presented, and (more critically) acted upon reveals a fundamental disconnect between measurement and meaningful improvement.

What code metrics actually measure, how to configure them properly, and (more importantly) why blindly following thresholds without understanding context is, frankly, a recipe for misguided refactoring efforts that waste your team’s time and actively damage your codebase.

.NET 10: Timing Is the New Technical Debt

2025 reshapes the .NET ecosystem with faster release cycles and shared responsibility. Discover why migrating to .NET 10 by Q1 2026 — and supporting your dependencies — turns timing into sustainable ROI.

.NET 10 and the Release Cycle Paradox

.NET’s yearly rhythm has become a symbol of stability — yet also a source of pressure. The release cycle paradox describes the tension between predictability and exhaustion: a release schedule that keeps the ecosystem healthy, but teams constantly catching up.

With .NET 10 on the horizon, developers must learn to navigate this rhythm rather than fight it.

Stop Breaking Multi-Targeting Builds with String Comparisons

String-based TargetFramework conditions fail silently in multi-targeting builds. IsTargetFrameworkCompatible() understands framework semantics and prevents production nightmares.

PackageDownload: NuGet's Forgotten Power Tool

PackageDownload arrived in NuGet 4.8 to solve a niche but genuine problem: downloading packages without adding assembly references. It works. But its version syntax requirements and complete disregard for Central Package Management reveal the messy reality of platform evolution.

Stop Parsing the Same String Twice: CompositeFormat in .NET

Every time you call string.Format() with the same format string, .NET parses it again. And again. And again. CompositeFormat changes that: parse once, reuse forever. The result? Up to 30% faster formatting, fewer allocations, and a one-line code change. Here’s why this matters and how to use it.

How SearchValues Saved Us From Scaling Hell

How SearchValues<T> Saved Us From Scaling Hell

While you’re busy optimizing database queries and adding cache layers, thousands of string searches per second are quietly eating your CPU budget. The problem isn’t visible in your APM dashboard because it’s distributed across every request. But it’s there. Compounding. Scaling linearly with load.

I discovered this the hard way when a log processing API started choking under production traffic. The bottleneck? String validation and sanitization. The fix? A .NET 8 feature that delivered a 5x performance improvement and let us shut down servers instead of adding them. And it’s gotten even better in .NET 9 and 10.

Clean Code: A Lip Service, Not a Standard

Clean Code is often praised but rarely practiced effectively. This article explores how misunderstood ideals and over-engineering harm .NET systems, how to recognize such failures early, and which C# best practices and official guidelines truly support maintainable software.

ConstantExpectedAttribute: Unlocking Performance Through Compiler Awareness

The ConstantExpectedAttribute, introduced in .NET 7, provides a powerful mechanism to signal compiler expectations about constant values. This enables better performance optimizations, enhanced IDE tooling, and clearer API contracts. Learn how to leverage this attribute to build more efficient and maintainable .NET applications.

Retiring Legacy .NET Projects — Balancing Risk, Cost, and Forward Value

In every mature .NET landscape, legacy projects represent both heritage and hazard. They once powered entire business models — now they silently consume time, budget, and attention. The decision to retire or modernize them isn’t about technology fashion. It’s about sustaining the organization’s capacity for value creation.

TUnit — A Pragmatic Evaluation for .NET Teams

TUnit brings compile-time test discovery and native AOT support to .NET testing — but is it ready for enterprise adoption? A pragmatic analysis of performance gains, tooling maturity, and migration timing for teams evaluating alternatives to MSTest, xUnit, and NUnit.

Buzzword-Driven Development vs. Fundamental Software Quality

Explore why fundamental software quality practices in .NET must never be overlooked for trendy buzzwords, including recommended analyzers and project settings for managing technical debt effectively.