

A new version of the Joel Test - progga
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/new-version-of-joel-test-draft.html

======
durzagott
"I know plenty of people who prefer more advanced source control system [than
Subversion], but my belief is that many agile practices diminish the
importance of advanced features like branching."

The author instantly lost any credibility with me after this line.

~~~
hello_moto
Why? I thought some companies do not do branching? They have their own
processes?

Some went nuts with the whole turn "on/off" features (so no branching).

I thought some team within Google also don't do branching? Always HEAD?

~~~
thurn
Facebook doesn't branch, all of their code is written against trunk.

~~~
jonstjohn
is this true? I'd like to hear more about this? How can all code be committed
to trunk? Don't they need to branch for releasing at least?

~~~
thurn
Oh, yeah, they branch for releasing. That is true.

------
nhaehnle
While reading this, it's good to keep another article of Joel Spolsky in mind:
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html>

Some of the author's "updates" to the test rules probably depend on which of
these worlds you live in.

~~~
tseabrooks
The different "Worlds" are deinfitely true; However, I've been in embedded SW
for almost 5 years and it's becoming clear that these worlds are all starting
to bleed together.

An example is the Television I work on have about 50% of their SW that can be
updated from the internet 25% that can be updated if a "tech" goes to a
customers house and opens the set... and 25% that may or may not be
upgradeable depending on X, Y, Z, the alignment of the planets, and the
country you live in...???

However, TV manufacturers are beginning to use more web content and web
technologies to develop look and feel for various features as well as using
third party web based APIs to power large chunks of the new functionality.

------
cousin_it
So the article says all items on the Joel Test have stood the test of time
except three: schedules, specs, and testers. These are supposed to be
superseded by agile practices. I'm skeptical. For one, agile methodologies
like XP and Scrum had already existed for years before Joel wrote his article.

------
warp
This is from 2008, please add something like [2008] to the title here on
hacker news.

------
thesash
One key point to keep in mind is that this article is specifically speaking
about startups, not mature organizations, so obviously some of the
modifications to the original test and added points won't be universally
applicable.

I think the best point Eric Reis adds to the original test is the last point
in the article: "Do your programmers understand the product they are building
and how it relates to your company's strategy?" Such a crucial point in
startups, especially when they start to grow quickly.

------
Tichy
I think this test is rigged to make Joel's company look good (no offense, I
love his writing and style and it is probably his honest opinion that these
are the best ways to approach software development).

