Question

Everyone I work with is obsessed with the data-centric approach to enterprise development and hates the idea of using custom collections/objects. What is the best way to convince them otherwise?

Answer 1

If you are working on legacy code (e.g., apps ported from .NET 1.x to 2.0 or 3.5) then it would be a bad idea to depart from datasets. Why change something that already works?

If you are, however, creating a new apps, there a few things that you can cite:

• Appeal to experiencing pain in maintaining apps that stick with DataSets
• Cite performance benefits for your new approach
• Bait them with a good middle-ground. Move to .NET 3.5, and promote LINQ to SQL, for instance: while still sticking to data-driven architecture, is a huge, huge departure to string-indexed data sets, and enforces… voila! Custom collections — in a manner that is hidden from them.

What is important is that whatever approach you use you remain consistent, and you are completely honest with the pros and cons of your approaches.

If all else fails (e.g., you have a development team that utterly refuses to budge from old practices and is skeptical of learning new things), this is a very, very clear sign that you’ve outgrown your team it’s time to leave your company!