The Modern .NET Show

NDepend with Patrick Smacchia: Scaling .NET Code Quality

Jan 9, 2026
Patrick Smacchia, creator of NDepend and expert in .NET static analysis and technical debt. He explains NDepend's approach to spotting maintainability issues, using CQLinq for custom code queries, and measuring technical debt and its yearly interest. They also cover test coverage as a debt driver, planning fixes with baseline-focused reports, and cautious ideas for AI-assisted analysis.
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ADVICE

Prioritize Untested Complex Code

  • Import code coverage results into NDepend and prioritize untested complex code for remediation.
  • Invest in tests: they provide daily feedback and make large refactors safe and frequent.
INSIGHT

Focus On Technical Debt Interest

  • Technical debt’s real cost is its ongoing interest: small issues (e.g., security) can rapidly escalate into major business risk.
  • NDepend estimates both remediation cost and yearly interest impact to help prioritize fixes.
ADVICE

Minimize False Positives

  • Keep false positives low; prioritize analyzer accuracy to maintain developer trust and adoption.
  • Continuously update heuristics to ignore generated code and similar benign patterns.
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