Developing Silverlight LOB Applications
That Don't Suck

 

Class Description

Detailed Syllabus

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Developing Silverlight Line of Business Applications That Don't Suck

A 5-Day Training Class
Taught by David S. Platt, M.E.

President, Rolling Thunder Computing Instructor in Computer Science, Harvard University Extension School

Author of Why Software Sucks  and Introducing Microsoft .NET

In-house at your company, on your schedule, customized to your needs
Call (978) 356 6377 for information

Silverlight is more powerful than Web Forms, as a chain saw is more powerful than a hand saw. With Silverlight, you can make your user much happier and more productive, which is your ultimate goal. But like anything else powerful, Silverlight is also double-edged. You can also make your user much less happy and less productive by using Silverlight, from simple confusion down to inflicting physical pain in under 30 seconds. Read my article “Using WPF for Good and Not Evil” to see examples of the good and bad things you can do with this new powerful environment.

Most Silverlight instruction teaches you only how to do things, without discussing what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t, or where and when you should do something versus when you shouldn’t, let alone why. I consider that to be malpractice – as bad as teaching someone how to fire up a chain saw without also teaching him which end of it to hold.

Most instruction in Silverlight has concentrated on media-heavy consumer applications. Silverlight has now advanced to the point at which it can seriously challenge WPF for line-of-business applications. This class concentrates on the parts of Silverlight most useful in line-of-business applications.

This class is designed for developers, architects, and managers switching from Web Forms to Silverlight. I  teach you how to start implementing in Silverlight, but I also teach you how to carefully choose and employ Silverlight’s features in ways that please your users.  

The goals of this class are:

1. To understand the fundamental architecture of Silverlight and to understand the specific features of Silverlight that are most useful in enterprise applications, and

2. To understand how to design your Silverlight applications to make users happier and more productive, and

3. To provide you with the understanding of the fundamental principles in items 1 and 2 that will allow you to continue to progress on your own.

Note: If you already know how to program Silverlight, and want a class in pure user interface design, see my class on Developing Software That Doesn't Suck

Schedule/Topic Grid:      Detailed Syllabus       

Day Morning Topic Afternoon Topic
1 Introduction Fundamental Structure
2 Controls Layout
3 Data Binding Graphics
4 Using Silverlight for Good and Not Evil Writing User Stories
5 Testing on Live Animals Instrumentation for Knowing Thy User