All credit and inspiration for the questions below goes to Joel Spolsky’s The Joel Test and Bill Tudor’s 2010 update.
My version differs in two aspects: First, has just ten questions ordered from highest to lowest priority (in my personal opinion). Second, in addition to yes/no questions, it asks open-ended questions intended to give more informative answers in an interview or an analysis of a software team.
- Do you use source control? What kind? What are the requirements/checks to check in code (assignment to work items, unit tests, peer review, etc)?
- Do you use a bug database to track all issues? How do you track progress and manage change?
- Do you use the best tools money can buy? For example: MSDN/Apple Dev accounts, dual monitors, and powerful workstations.
- Do you have a dedicated QA team? Are they involved in the requirement/release management process?
- Do you fix bugs and write new code at the same time? How do you balance the two?
- Do programmers have quiet working conditions and team meeting rooms? Describe them.
- Do you solicit feedback from end users or customers during the development process? How is it used?
- Do you do a daily build? Do your builds include automated unit tests?
- Do you have a requirements management system? Is it integrated with your source control?
- Do you create specification/requirements documents? Do you do it before, during, or after writing code?