<p>The overloading mechanism should be used in place of optional parameters for several reasons:</p>
<ul>
  <li> Optional parameter values are baked into the method call site code, thus, if a default value has been changed, all referencing assemblies need
  to be rebuilt, otherwise the original values will be used. </li>
  <li> The Common Language Specification (CLS) allows compilers to ignore default parameter values, and thus require the caller to explicitly specify
  the values. For example, if you want to consume a method with default argument from another .NET compatible language (for instance C++/CLI), you
  will have to provide all arguments. When using method overloads, you could achieve similar behavior as default arguments. </li>
  <li> Optional parameters prevent muddying the definition of the function contract. Here is a simple example: if there are two optional parameters,
  when one is defined, is the second one still optional or mandatory? </li>
</ul>
<h2>Noncompliant Code Example</h2>
<pre>
void Notify(string company, string office = "QJZ") // Noncompliant
{
}
</pre>
<h2>Compliant Solution</h2>
<pre>
void Notify(string company)
{
  Notify(company, "QJZ");
}
void Notify(string company, string office)
{
}
</pre>
<h2>Exceptions</h2>
<p>The rule ignores non externally visible methods.</p>