About the Authors
Darren Jefford
Darren Jefford (http://blogs.msdn.com/darrenj) has worked for Microsoft UK for more than five years. He is a principal consultant within the Application Development Consulting (ADC) team, where he works with a variety of customers and partners to architect, develop, and test solutions built on the Microsoft platform, leveraging the entire breadth of Microsoft development technologies.
Recent customer work has led Darren to focus on BizTalk Server and Visual Studio Team System, alongside the core .NET platform. As a result, Darren recently coauthored Professional Visual Studio Team System 2005 (Wrox).
Darren has previously worked as a consultant and as a software engineer for a number of software houses in the UK, developing market-trading platforms and financial software using a wide range of Microsoft technologies, including C++, COM, and SQL Server.
Darren cut his developer's teeth on the Sinclair Spectrum and BBC Micro and then upgraded to an 8086, which hooked him on the PC platform. He subsequently learned C++, which led to a junior software development role at the tender age of 15.
Darren is married to Julieann, with whom he has two fantastic young children, Lucy and Toby, who take up most of his time. Between his family and Microsoft, there isn't much time left, but whenever possible he takes time out to tinker with digital photography, play the guitar, and follow Formula 1.
Darren is the author of Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, and ...
