The Joel Test

The Joel Test

    Do you use source control?
    Can you make a build in one step?
    Do you make daily builds?
    Do you have a bug database?
    Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
    Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
    Do you have a spec?
    Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
    Do you use the best tools money can buy?
    Do you have testers?
    Do new candidates write code during their interview?
    Do you do hallway usability testing?
   
    2. Can you make a build in one step?
    If it takes 20 steps to compile the code, run the installation builder, etc., you're going to go crazy and you're going to make silly mistakes.
    we required that the installation process be able to run, from a script, automatically, overnight, using the NT scheduler, and WISE couldn't run from the scheduler overnight, so we threw it out. (The kind folks at WISE assure me that their latest version does support nightly builds.)
   
    3. Do you make daily builds?
    Breaking the build is so bad (and so common) that it helps to make daily builds, to insure that no breakage goes unnoticed. On large teams, one good way to insure that breakages are fixed right away is to do the daily build every afternoon at, say, lunchtime. Everyone does as many checkins as possible before lunch. When they come back, the build is done. If it worked, great! Everybody checks out the latest version of the source and goes on working. If the build failed, you fix it, but everybody can keep on working with the pre-build, unbroken version of the source.
   
    4. Do you have a bug database?
   
    complete steps to reproduce the bug
    expected behavior
    observed (buggy) behavior
    who it's assigned to
    whether it has been fixed or not

If the complexity of bug tracking software is the only thing stopping you from tracking your bugs, just make a simple 5 column table with these crucial fields and start using it.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html