Services

Modern .NET (from the current platform through LTS releases) supports clean architecture through dependency injection, async/await patterns, and strong typing—reducing defects before they reach production. Whether building ASP.NET Razor pages, Blazor front-ends, or WPF desktop applications, the discipline is the same: clear separation of concerns, testable logic, and maintainability as a first-class concern. We aim to leave future maintainers with fewer surprises than the average sprint retrospective.

Automated regression testing through Selenium WebDriver accelerates confidence in changes. When tests are maintainable and targeted, engineers spend less time validating existing behavior and more time solving new problems. Tests are written so incidents become statistical anomalies rather than recurring talking points in on-call handovers.

AI adoption works best when strategic: automate repetitive pattern-matching, augment decision-making with real-time insights, and analyze trends to guide product direction. Guard against the temptation to apply AI where deterministic logic or simple rules suffice. Practicality guides us—if the model increases operational load, it needs a better justification than novelty.

Deliberate schema design, Entity Framework Core for type-safe queries, and automated migrations mean data remains auditable and reversible. Good data practice resembles sound bookkeeping: traceable records simplify compliance, debugging, and strategic decisions. We prefer migrations that read like receipts—clear, itemised, and useful when someone asks "what changed?"

Accessible, semantic markup paired with responsive design frameworks (Bootstrap, Material UI, MudBlazor, Syncfusion, Telerik) ensures rapid prototyping without sacrificing maintainability. Component libraries become organizational standards—accelerating delivery and enforcing visual consistency across products. We judge design by how few support tickets it generates after release.

Established reusable libraries like Syncfusion and Telerik reduce redundant work, but homegrown component collections (built in Blazor, MVC, or Webforms) create lasting advantage when documented and versioned. The payoff: faster prototypes, easier maintenance, and consistent user experience across the product suite. Choosing a library should reduce design meetings, not create new ones.

Separation of concerns allows better concurrency and avoids monolithic releases. It allows sharing across multiple applications and partners.

Resilient integrations anticipate real-world failure: OAuth2 for secure API access, circuit breakers for graceful degradation, retry logic, rate-limit awareness, and exponential backoff. When integration is invisible during uptime and straightforward during incidents, it's working. Our preference is integrations that are quiet when they succeed and obvious when they need attention.

Migrating platforms and modernizing infrastructure reduces operational overhead, delegates daily content management to stakeholders, and improves time-to-market. This reduces support costs while allowing engineers to focus on integrations and providing complex solutions to site visitors. A successful CMS is one that stakeholders use without having to ask engineers for permission every time.

As part of a build and release strategy, CI/CD pipelines written in YAML (Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions) orchestrate builds, security scans, and deployments with repeatability and auditability. When pipelines are version-controlled and readable, they become organizational knowledge—not tribal dependency on a single engineer's expertise.

Aspire also assists with release and application operations with newer versions of .NET "core". Reliable pipelines reduce the number of ad-hoc release calls; that's an efficiency worth celebrating quietly.

Infrastructure-as-Code using BICEP and PowerShell scripts makes cloud architecture reproducible and testable. Azure services—App Services, Azure SQL, VNets, Storage, SignalR for real-time communication—are provisioned predictably. Autoscaling policies prevent both waste and performance cliffs when demand fluctuates.

Downtime happens—assume it, plan for it, test it. Automated backups, failover strategies, and documented recovery procedures transform disaster from existential threat into managed incident. Recovery testing isn't a checkbox—it's proof that your plan works when it matters most. We prefer rehearsed recovery over panicked improvization.

Private artifact repositories (Azure Artifacts and NuGet) and semantic versioning ensure teams depend on internally developed libraries with confidence. Automated feeds reduce friction during upgrades and prevent version skew across the organization. A disciplined feed is the best kind of hygiene—boring and effective.

Git repositories, code review workflows, and scalable CI/CD infrastructure (Azure DevOps, GitHub) are organizational backbone. The platform choice should amplify team velocity—not add bureaucratic overhead or slow down iteration. In practice, the right workflow is the one the team follows consistently.

Effective monitoring focuses on user impact and operational risk—not vanity metrics. Alerts should be rare and actionable. Alert fatigue is a productivity killer; the goal is signal clarity, not noise volume. We prefer alerts that start conversations about improvement, not blame.

Metrics that drive decisions reveal what's working and what's not. Outcomes dashboards should guide priorities, surface opportunities, and provide feedback loops tight enough to course-correct within days, not quarters. We treat telemetry as a conversation with the product—concise, evidence-led, and sometimes blunt.

Enterprise transformation requires bridging strategy and execution. Technical leaders guide architecture decisions, mentor high-performing teams, and ensure technical choices serve business objectives. Success is measured in delivery speed, system reliability, and team capability—not in architectural purity or technology novelty. We value decisions that reduce debate in future design reviews.

Agile methodologies—explicit acceptance criteria, prioritized backlogs, short cycles—work because they create feedback loops and predictable progress. Productivity is measured, alignment is enforced, and surprises are interpreted as signals, not noise. Teams shipping incrementally learn faster and adapt sooner than those locked into long cycles. We like short cycles because they convert uncertainty into smaller, solvable problems.

Surveys, pre-releases, and usability testing surface actionable patterns. Qualitative feedback translates into metrics and experiments, so iteration remains grounded in evidence rather than anecdote. We favour evidence that changes plans faster than it provokes defence.

Security isn't a feature—it's infrastructure. OAuth2, IAM principles, and KeyVault integration should be standard practice, not added late. Teams that embed security thinking into design and deployment prevent breaches far more effectively than those retrofitting compliance. We design security so it becomes routine rather than an emergency.

Communication and automation tools should eliminate friction, not create new bottlenecks. When tooling reduces manual work and clarifies priorities, teams focus on delivery instead of process management. Our measure of success is fewer status-update meetings, not fancier dashboards.