An Introduction to Test Driven Development

There are lots of systems for developing software, but it often seems that DBAs don't adhere to any of them. New author Sudheer Palyam brings us a look at one that he has used in developing T-SQL applications, whereby the test scripts are written first.

The Myth of Bandwidth and Application Performance

This whitepaper is intended to shed light on the issues affecting application performance in the wide area, and to give IT managers the knowledge required to design strategic enterprise application acceleration and deployment solutions

Running VirtualPC Images Effeciently

I have not been a real big fan of using VPC until recently with the Betas and releases of Visual Studio and SQL 2005. Now I can’t stop creating images with different environments for testing Service Packs, OS, Project Server, VS/SQL2005, etc. I want to share with you and also record the steps I used for making my images run efficiently.

SQL database control and deployment

If you develop SQL databases, you know how difficult it can be to promote from the development environment to production with any level of confidence that the databases are the same.

When you have upgrades, it’s difficult to identify changes as well, especially when there are multiple developers making changes to multiple databases. The problem is compounded if your target environment is a client’s system over which you have no control. It’s staggering to think about what can happen if there are 600-plus client systems that have various versions of your database.

Calling All Editing Buffs

Author Sean McCown would like to see some improvements in the editing tools that are available. He's proposed some changes and ideas to make a better tool. Join the discussion and see if you can get the SQL Server vendors to build something to make every DBA's job easier.

Administering a Development Environment

In any well run development environment, you will have a separate SQL Server for developers to work on, completely different from your production server. However there are a few tricks that Jason Hall brings us that you might want to implement to ensure a smooth running environment.

10 Things You Shouldn't Do with SQL Server

I posted a blog entry and a forum entry in a couple places to ask the question, "What are the things you see developers doing with SQL Server data access that they shouldn't?" The list grew to about 25 or 26 things that were hot topics (so much that the Microsoft SQL Server product team was passing the thread around).

Anatomy of an IT disaster: How the FBI blew it

Some FBI agents ruefully refer to the trilogy project, a massive initiative to modernize the FBI's aging technology infrastructure, as the "Tragedy" project. It certainly has all the earmarks of tragedy: the best intentions, catastrophic miscommunication, staggering waste.

Using Source Control to Develop Smarter

Veteran and novice developers alike need source control management (SCM). Also known as asset management, and source code management, SCM helps you (and your team) manage development projects, and the components and code that make up the project.

There are many benefits to using source control management, most notably the ability to develop code faster, smarter and more accurately. Source control management tools help you control your code; especially in multiple developer projects.

The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle

This paper discusses the Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle (or SDL), a process that Microsoft has adopted for the development of software that needs to withstand malicious attack. The process encompasses the addition of a series of security-focused activities and deliverables to each of the phases of Microsoft's software development process. These activities and deliverables include the development of threat models during software design, the use of static analysis code-scanning tools during implementation, and the conduct of code reviews and security testing during a focused "security push". Before software subject to the SDL can be released, it must undergo a Final Security Review by a team independent from its development group. When compared to software that has not been subject to the SDL, software that has undergone the SDL has experienced a significantly reduced rate of external discovery of security vulnerabilities. This paper describes the SDL and discusses experience with its implementation across Microsoft software.