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During an interview, usually the interviewee is the one being measured.

However I believe as an interviewee we should also question the measurement of the IT company that we applied for, but how?

I remember I read an question in stackexchange, about how to measure a company index based on 14 questions (or 10 questions-I forgot). Some of the questions were :

  • "does the company have source control"
  • "does the company have QA and does code review"

Anybody remember what the name of the measurement is? Thanks.

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That's Joel Test. Focused on technical aspects. You may want to add your own, non technical (and subjective) tests to them. – user2567 Jul 18 '11 at 10:02
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The single most important question I can think of is "Can you tell me your average developer turnover rate?" If it's high, this is not a pleasant place to work at. If they refuse to tell you, beware - it's probably actively unpleasant. – Kilian Foth Jul 18 '11 at 10:06
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"average developer turnover rate" is not enough, you need to know how long new developers stay for, as there may be a bad case of "them and us" between the old and the new. (You will be a new...) – Ian Jul 18 '11 at 11:05
@Pierre, That should be an answer. – maple_shaft♦ Jul 18 '11 at 11:11
@maple_shaft: OK, did it – user2567 Jul 18 '11 at 11:20
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7 Answers

up vote 17 down vote accepted

That would be the Joel Test. It even has its own tag here.

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Ah yes. It's indeed Joel Test. Any other measurement than Joel Test? – Rudy Jul 18 '11 at 10:50
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@Rudy consider the Rands test in addition to the Joel test. randsinrepose.com/archives/2011/10/11/the_rands_test.html – Zoot Jan 15 at 20:49
up vote 9 down vote

It's the Joel Test. The industry accepted test for all technical aspects.

You may want to add your own, non technical (and subjective) tests to them.

Passing (or failing) the Joel Test doesn't indicate that the company is for you (or not).

In fact, a company failing to most Joel's tests can be what one seek. After all, if they can't do a build in one step, you can surely provide them with the expertise they need.

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+1. Joining a small company that fails the Joel test and you could become the company guru (provided existing staff are open to change, and provided you introduce "your" ideas tactfully) – MarkJ Jul 18 '11 at 15:21
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+1 but a caveat: If they do poorly on the Joel Test and show unwillingness or ignorance about any of it, chances are they won't listen to your input about implementing. Also +1 for asking other questions that aren't 100% related to the technology stack - those questions can often give a better perspective of the company culture than the technical questions. – Wayne M Jul 18 '11 at 19:16
"The industry accepted test"...when was this ratified, and by whom? :P – Kyralessa Jan 15 at 1:41
up vote 3 down vote

The Joel Test can be good but in reality I have never seen or worked for an organization that scored higher than 8 on the Joel Test, and some of them were decent or great jobs anyway.

It has been my experience that in a good software development job in a good organization it is less important about what GOOD processes the company does, than MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY the negative processes or anti-patterns.

This link about the Anti-Joel Test was already posted but it is so relevant.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/901320/anti-joel-test

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up vote 0 down vote

COBIT, CMMI and ITIL would be a few other frameworks to determine what controls a company may have.

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up vote -1 down vote

Obviously the Joel Test is a good base.

On the non-technical side, I like (but have never tried): http://positivesharing.com/2007/03/some-killer-questions-to-ask-in-your-next-job-interview/

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up vote -1 down vote

I also like to ask whether it's a new position or they are replacing someone. If the latter, I follow up with "what happened to them?".

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why would you want to ask that? – gnat Jan 14 at 22:31
up vote -2 down vote

I would ask if they implement any of the ITIL processes, Joel sort of touched on it, but it's another set of IT best practices.

UPDATE: For example, I would ask about release and deployment management, and also incident management. This is important b/c not all software positions are at software companies, some are at organizations that just have software departments, in which the person hired would be working on software for the company. It would be nice to know there is a process in place whereby someone formally reports a bug and there's a process in place to get it fixed, and the fix is released with another process, possibly with other improvements, etc.

This is instead of someone emailing the developer directly and expecting a fix in an impossible time frame, which might be the way it's done at the interviewee's potential employer. Hearing about these processes in an interview would allow the candidate to seriously consider whether or not they want to be subjected to those practices.

Side note, looks like everyone who doesn't answer 'Joel Test' gets downvoted? Wow.

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ITIL can be as much a curse as a blessing in a large org. Perhaps you could point out what aspects of this you thing the OP should look for? – Bill Jan 10 at 22:04
@ Least they (Large orgs and others w/ ITIL) have some sort of standards, as opposed to just seat of the pants or fly by night procedures. – MDMoore313 Jan 15 at 17:15

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