Some time ago I took a quick look at Patrick Smacchia’s NDepend.  While I was impressed with it, I never took the time to dive into it.  Recently, I took another look to see if it could help inform some refactoring of the Digipede Agent. 

If you aren’t familiar with it, NDepend is a static analysis tool that allows you to dive deeply into your code base.   Its feature list is truly truly impressive. Here are a few things that stand out for me:

• The Code Query Language (CQL) allowing SQL-like queries of your code base, with a set of pre-canned queries targeting code quality, design, naming conventions, and much more.
• A visual tool with dependency graphs and matrices and more
• Ability to compare between different runs of the same project – at an incredible level.
• Of course, A command-line tool for incorporation into your build process.

I loaded up the Digipede Agent assemblies and – kind of like a kid in a candy store – I found myself heading off in 10 different directions at once.  My thought process went kind of like this:

• Wow, look at these matrices and graphs, and all these CQL queries. 
• This is really cool to have this level of information available with build integration!
• Wow, there sure are a lot of warnings here. 
• Let’s fix them!  Wait, let’s prioritize them and customize them and, etc.

(The experience reminds me of when I started using FxCop.)

I highly recommend this software . . .

1. To help you make informed refactoring decisions; and
2. to add design and code-quality criteria (and enforcement) into your build process.

So, why do I say this is a “must-have” tool?  Because code quality is not a nice-to-have.  Quality reduces maintenance and support costs and allows you to spend your time and money on more profitable endeavors.

Go buy it.

BTW: I would like to post some of the results I’ve gotten with the Digipede Agent, but I’m not ready to share that yet.