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Isn't the joel test less about pass/fail and more about communicating and encouraging certain things that make a better environment for developers? I don't really care if they "pass" the joel test or not, but I do find the answers to the questions helpful. I sure as hell wouldn't want to work in a place with no source control.

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Joel didn't leave himself much breathing room on interpreting the test results.

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

"A score of 12 is perfect, 11 is tolerable, but 10 or lower and you've got serious problems. The truth is that most software organizations are running with a score of 2 or 3, and they need serious help, because companies like Microsoft run at 12 full-time. "

And if you are in the operating system business and you score less than 12 you are in trouble

If you are competing with microsoft in web services you can probably afford to score rather less!

Which just goes to show how old that is. Which tech company wants to be in ms shoes, without the pegacy cash cows?

I agree. Also, I don't know if I would consider a 12/12 the only way to "pass," if you want to think about it that way. A 10/12 is a pretty good score, but I think it is more about the transparency and knowing what the job offers and what it doesn't.

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