Improvements in programming languages and rapid development tooling, like .NET and Visual Studio, continue to fuel the industry to deliver better quality software faster, cheaper, and with more frequent upgrades or refreshes. Despite this continued demand for more software and the evolution in our tools and processes, building and releasing quality software remains the responsibility of the developer and a challenging one at that. We, as software developers, constantly seek improvements to our methodologies and practices as we struggle to meet the demands of our managers, organizations, and customers to release high-quality software.

There are many great project management frameworks, tools, and engineering practices that can be very effective in improving quality and software delivery when successfully applied. But the combination of quality and agility are best achieved when great engineering practices are combined with the project delivery rigor and rhythm that best fits your team’s needs. While the definition of agility in software delivery will differ across organizations, teams, and software markets, there is a core set of engineering practices for writing managed code that will universally improve the quality of the software your organization delivers. We will explore each of these practices in depth in subsequent chapters of this book.