Preface

I had often thought about writing a book on the topic of development, a book whose focus would be on the role of the lead developer. I started saving my thoughts, even creating snippets that I hoped would eventually find their way into that book. I was edging my way slowly to committing to the project, knowing that the topic was timeless and that I could take my time to get things right and to do the book justice.

When Manning approached me about writing a book on web portals and web parts using ASP.NET 2.0, I knew that with this topic timing would play a large part in determining when the book would need to be delivered. There would be no taking it slow with this one! A new and exciting technology such as this results in a huge hunger for information about how to create solutions using the new bits and pieces. Regardless of the timing, I needed to convince myself that I could write a book that would share with others the lessons gathered in my years of solutions development experience and that would not simply focus on the new stuff. With the book now behind me, I believe that I have managed to achieve this goal.