This book, at its core, is all about building your own set of tools from which you can draw inspiration as you work with SQL Server. I try to explain not only the hows of each concept described herein, but also the whys. And in many examples throughout the book, I attempt to delve into the process I took for finding what I feel is the optimal solution. My goal is to share with you how I think through problems. Whether or not you find my approach to be directly usable, my hope is that you can harness it as a means by which to tune your own development methodology.
This book is arranged into three logical sections. The first four chapters deal with software development methodologies as they apply to SQL Server. The next three chapters get into advanced features specific to SQL Server. And the final four chapters are more architecturally focused, delving into specific design and implementation issues around some of the more difficult topics I’ve encountered in past projects.
The primary purpose of this book is to bring Microsoft SQL Server developers back into the software development fold. These pages stress rigorous testing, well-thought-out architectures, and careful attention to interdependencies. Proper consideration of these areas is the hallmark of an expert software developer—and database professionals, as the core members of any software development team, simply cannot afford to lack this expertise.