Hi i read this inspired, i am asking for specific help to achieve a 12 for my current project. i am working in a team of 3-4 on a php project that is based on cakephp. i only have a dedicated server running on linux which i intend to have the website live on. and i have a plan with assembla where i am using its svn repository. that's it. i like to hear a major, impactful step towards answering each point raised by the joel test. by impactful i mean doing just this one thing would raise my project to scoring or close to scoring on that area of the joel test. lets begin: 1) do you have a source control system? I am very proud to say learning how to use svn even though we know nuts about branch/release policies made the biggest impact to our programming lives. and the svn repos is on assembla paid plan. Feel free to add if anyone thinks we can do more in this area. 2) Can you make a build in one step? i think the issue is how do i define as a build? i think we are going to define it as if tomorrow my dedicated server crashed and we found another server from another normal hosting provider and all my team's machines all destroyed, how are we going to get the website up again? my code is in svn on assembla. 1 step means as close to 1 button to push as possible. 3)Do you make daily builds? i know nothing about this. please help. i googled and came across this phpundercontrol. but i am not sure if we can get that to work with assembla. are there easier ways? 4)Do you have a bug database? we have not used the assembla features on bug tracking. ashamed to say. i think i will sort this out myself. 5)Do you fix bugs before writing new code? policy issue. i will sort it out myself. 6)Do you have an up-to-date schedule? Working on it. Same as above. estimates have historically been overly optimistic. having spent too much time using all sorts of funny project management tools, i think this time i am going to use just paper and pen. please dont tell me scrum. i need to keep things even simpler than that. 7)Do you have a spec? We do, but its in paper and pen. what would be a good template? 8)Do programmers have quiet working conditions? Well we work at home and in distributed manner. so .. 9)Do you use the best tools money can buy? We use cheap tools. we are not big. 10)Do you have testers? NO testers. Since we have a team of 3, i think i should go get 1 tester. even on a part time basis. so i should get this 1 part time tester test in what manner to extract maximum effects? should i get him to write out the test scenarios and expected outcomes and then test it? or i write the test scenarios and then ask him to do it? we will be writing the test cases ourselves using simpletest. i came across selenium. how useful is that? 11)Do new candidates write code during their interview? Not applicable. But i will do it next time i try to hire anyone else. hires or contractors alike. 12)Do you do hallway usability testing? Will do so on a per month or per milestone basis. i will grab my friends who are not net-savvy. they will be the best testers of this type. Thank you.