<p>I recently downloaded ndepend and ran an analysis on an open source project I participate in.</p>

<p>I did not now where to look next - a bit of visual and information overload and it turned out I don't even know where to start.</p>

<p>Can anyone suggest starting points?</p>

<ul>
<li>What information should I look for first?</li>
<li>What points out problems in the code (in a BIG way)?</li>
<li>What would the low hanging fruit that can immediately seen?</li>
</ul>

[{'answer_id': 44648, 'author': 't3rse', 'author_id': 64, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/64', 'pm_score': 5, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>Scott Hanselman / Stuart Celarier / Patrick Cauldwell\'s <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/EducatingProgrammersWithPlacematsNDependStaticAnalysisPoster.aspx" rel="noreferrer">poster</a> with ndepend metrics has some useful information on it. Rather than trying to break down all the heuristics being used I\'d focus on only a few at a time starting with "zone of pain / zone of uselessness" and cyclomatic complexity. </p>\n\n<p>There is also a <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HanselminutesPodcast51StaticCodeAnalysisWithNDepend.aspx" rel="noreferrer">podcast</a> which covers some of the basics of the tool. </p>\n\n<p>Between that and running nDepend on a few different projects you may be able to start gathering useful data that you can make into insights.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 195352, 'author': 'Patrick from NDepend team', 'author_id': 27194, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/27194', 'pm_score': 4, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>When starting with NDepend, the most important thing is to understand what <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Features.aspx#CQL" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Code Rule over LINQ (CQLinq)</a> can bring to your shop by letting you define queries on your code and rules. <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/DefaultRules/webframe.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here you\'ll find a summary and source code of all 200 default code rules</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The second most important thing to look at is dependencies, with both the <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Doc_VS_Arch.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dependency graph view</a>, that works hand-in-hand with the <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Doc_Matrix.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dependency matrix view</a>. Once you master these 2 views, you\'ll be able to pinpoint where the code is well layered or not, and where developers made mistake.</p>\n\n<p>Then it\'ll be time to learn more in-depth feature, such as the possibility to <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Features.aspx#BuildComparison" rel="nofollow noreferrer">compare 2 versions of your code base</a>, the <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Features.aspx#Metrics" rel="nofollow noreferrer">various code metrics</a> and why they are useful, enforcing statically <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Features.aspx#Immutable" rel="nofollow noreferrer"> purity and immutability</a>, controlling automatically <a href="http://www.ndepend.com/Features.aspx#Coverage" rel="nofollow noreferrer">test coverage</a>...</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 13213470, 'author': 'Oded', 'author_id': 1583, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1583', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Excellent pair of web casts (30 minute videos) where Patrick Smacchia and Filip Ekberg talk through some of the features of nDepend and how to use them:</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://codebetter.com/patricksmacchia/2012/10/31/two-screencasts-on-how-to-demystify-spaghetti-code/" rel="nofollow">http://codebetter.com/patricksmacchia/2012/10/31/two-screencasts-on-how-to-demystify-spaghetti-code/</a></p>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/44637', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1583/']