Raising Our J-Score

I follow Joel Spolsky's Blog, which I find very useful and pithy.  Joel is a former Microsoft programmer, now CEO and programmer.  Joel published a blog way back in the Halcyon Days of 2000 entitled "The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code"

So how do we stack up?


The Joel Test
1.  Do you use source control?
     Not yet.  We make file-system copies.  Our score:  0
2.  Can you make a build in one step?
     Depends.  My code is usually a yes, others, not a chance. Our score is a generous  .5
3.  Do you make daily builds?
     Not really.  Our score:  0
4.  Do you have a bug database?
     Nope  Our score: 0
5.  Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
     We try, but without a bug database, it's often hard to tell. I'm going to be very generous and say yes.  Our score 1.
6.  Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
      What's a schedule?  Our score:  0
7.  Do you have a spec?
     Real programmers don't need no stinkin' specs! That's a no, by the way.  Our score: 0
8.  Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
     What did you say?  It's too noisy in here!  Our score: 0
9   Do you use the best tools money can buy?
     Mostly.  Being a state agency, buying anything is challenging.   I'll say "yes".  Our score: 1
10 Do you have testers?
     Do programmers and users count?  No?  Then no.  The only thing harder than buying stuff is hiring people.  Our score:  0
11.  Do new candidates write code during their interview?
      Nope.  Our score: 0 
12.  Do you do hallway usability testing?
       No.  Our score:  0

Joel says "A score of 12 is perfect, 11 is tolerable, but 10 or lower and you've got serious problems. The truth is that most software organizations are running with a score of 2 or 3, and they need serious help, because companies like Microsoft run at 12 full-time. "

We scored a pathetic 2.5.  But there's hope!  I spend some time today investigating source control, and am confident that we will, kinda, sorta, start using it soon.  We're going with Mercurial , an open source distributed source control management tool.

If you've not looked at it, it is a command-line code repository.  If you are not using source control at all, look at this tutorial, this blog post, and this tutorial.  These sites will bring you up to speed.

Next in my sites, bug tracking!