We’ve completed version 1 of the patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance. The major stories we covered in this release are:

• Architectural decisions about patterns, feature factoring, and packaging.
• Design tradeoffs for common decisions many developers encounter, such as when to use SharePoint lists or a database to store information.
• Implementation examples that are demonstrated in the Training Management application and in the QuickStarts.
• How to design for testability, create unit tests, and run continuous integration.
• How to set up different environments including the development, build, test, staging, and production environments.
• How to manage the application life cycle through development, test, deployment, and upgrading.
• Team-based intranet application development.

For those eXtreme Programmers out there, check out the guidance on Unit Testing. If you’re working on a SharePoint application that needs some updates and modifications, be sure to check out the guidance on Upgrading the Training Management Application.

Big thanks goes to our friends from Avanade, Charles Cho, Alex Nichols and Mike Chorey. Also, special thanks to Rob Bogue for keeping us honest. Great job Team!!!