I am reminded by a blog by Brad Abrams of a topic I meant to blog about a few weeks ago but forgot.  A while back I downloaded the free Microsoft tool FxCop.  This was back in the original versions and it was a bit cumbersome to work with.  Now, however, the new version (1.3) is much better!

FxCop performs an introspective analysis of your code, comparing rules that you select against your code and offering suggestions and recommendations.  These rules provide guidance for naming conventions, object design standards and practices, and common performance suggestions.  Additionally, the rule model is extensible - you can create your own sets of rules to apply to your code that help enforce individual or team standards and practices.

If you've not had the opportunity to use FxCop, take the time to do so!  In all honesty, I was a bit disconcerted when I first ran it on my code.  It's analysis is quite thorough and I was quite amazed at all the things (both small and great) that it caught in my code.  I try, now, to make it a habit to always run FxCop against my assemblies and am working on incorporating it into my daily builds of my code.

John Robbins has an excellent introduction into FxCop that you should read, whether you are new to FxCop or old hat.  Kudos to Microsoft for publishing such a great tool.