http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000024.html
good analogies, thought-provoking as usual for Mr. Spolsky.
also good: "the longer it takes to task switch (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000022.html), the bigger the penalty you pay for multitasking ... [for] *programmers* task switches take a really, really, really long time" (wow does this hit home right now, for me at work presently)
Yeah, Joel's always a good read. My current team lead has read pretty much every article by Spolsky, and has even done the Joel Test (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html) to see how our organization rates (we only got 50%).
Quote from: Thorin on March 03, 2009, 11:10:02 PM
Yeah, Joel's always a good read. My current team lead has read pretty much every article by Spolsky, and has even done the Joel Test (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html) to see how our organization rates (we only got 50%).
You mean 6? Ouch.
Oh, and #8 "Do programmers have quiet working conditions?", that should really be understood as more than just reduced noise, but also include reduced INTERUPTIONS -- including frequent last-minute short-deadline urgent tasks, and ongoing multi-tasking expectation (in direct conflict with the other Joel article (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000022.html) I read earlier today... grrr...)
Yeah, we failed on 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Although 11 we only failed on because writing code during the interview isn't a policy, but almost everyone on the team now had worked previously with the owner or the team lead, so their coding skills were already known.
Still, it was interesting to see a supervisor care enough to take the Joel Test.