FXCop is the short term for Framework Police, an analysis tool for Microsoft’s .NET Framework.  As its name suggests, FXCop basically functions to analyze and check various codes inside the .NET Framework. By having a framework engine like FXCop, software developers will be able to check the details on the .NET framework in terms of standards and so-called best practices.

FXCop for example is able to check the compiled object codes inside the .NET framework.  With this functionality, software developers will be able to analyze if coding’s best practices are followed and that naming conventions are at par with industry or global standards.  Implementing a software or network project using FXCop will also help program developers to be consistent with their codes according to pre-determined policies and standards.  This is especially applicable for programming teams that is composed of so many individuals.  When there are simply too many people making codes, it will be so tedious for supervisors for example to check each person’s part of the software project.  Through FXCop, the codes contributed by each team member can easily be analyzed and checked for errors and consistency.

The use of the FxCop tool in the .NET Framework is also very valuable in terms of system security.  In this part of the project, FXCop will be able to detect possible problematic elements in the codes written by various programmers.  Code assemblies are assessed in terms of their vulnerability to the addition of malicious codes which could wreak havoc to the entire framework or system.  FXCop also analyzes if all elements in the network are able to do what they are supposed to and in the most efficient way possible.  All these checking and analyzing by FXCop will ultimately lead to improved framework performance, reliability, and portability. The best thing about FXCop is that its integration within any part of the software development cycle is made easy.