Chapter 17. Next Steps

Congratulations! You've made it through quite a learning curve, from object concepts, to object modeling, to C# programming. What you do next will depend on what your intentions were for learning this material in the first place:

• If you're a software developer primarily interested in building C# applications: You'll want to get some hands-on C# programming experience if you haven't already done so. A good first step is to tackle some of the exercises at the end of each chapter in Part Three of this book. If you've done so, you might be ready to try your hand at a full life cycle, object-oriented (OO) development project. See the next section in this chapter, "Our Tried-and-True Approach to Learning C# Properly," for a game plan on how to proceed and see the "Recommended Reading" section later in this chapter for other books in the Apress suite (and beyond) that might be appropriate next steps in your continued professional development.

• If you're a systems analyst primarily interested in object modeling: Be certain to attempt the exercises at the ends of the chapters in Part Two of the book if you haven't already done so. Then, seek out an opportunity to engage in an object modeling project within your organization, ideally with a senior object modeler to guide and mentor you.

• If you're a manager whose goal is to become better versed in these technologies: This may be an appropriate time to conduct a technology review of ongoing projects in your organization to learn how the techniques touched upon in this book are specifically being carried out.

• If you're an instructor: Please consider this book as the basis of a beginning object methods/C# curriculum in either an academic or corporate setting.

Whatever your focus, be sure to visit the Microsoft Developer's Network web site, http://msdn.microsoft.com, or Jacquie's web site, http://objectstart.com, for additional suggestions as well as links to related web sites that you might be interested in.