This has been around for awhile, but I just stumbled on it again today. The Joel Test (by Joel Spolsky of “Joel on Software” fame) is a quick checklist of the quality of a development team. When I’m making recommendations to clients on how to improve their development process, these are the types of things that I’m looking for. I would hazard to add:

 

13. Do you develop software iteratively and incrementally?

14. Do you involve end users in prioritizing requirements/backlog items/user stories?

15. Does your team have daily standup meetings where each member communicates what was done yesterday, what will be done today, and what is preventing them from being as productive as they could be?

 

In other words, are you using agile techniques where appropriate?

 

EDIT: Tidied up some wonky formatting.