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About 12 years ago, I worked for a company that scored a one. I and a number of other people on the team started working to improve things. Over a span of about

About 12 years ago, I worked for a company that scored a one. I and a number of other people on the team started working to improve things. Over a span of about six months, we had the team up to a 7. There was still plenty of room to improve but we all felt massive accomplishment. Then our Director (also a developer) told us "this SVN thing isn't useful" and demanded that we stop using version control. Then he saw Mantis (our bug tracker) and complained about how ugly it was. Instead of choosing a prettier one, we had to use his Excel spreadsheets on the local fileshare. It got worse and worse until our 7 went back to a 2 in about 60 days. Six months later, 8 of the 10 had left. Even the people who hadn't originally been on board with the changes but saw the benefits left.

reificator 9y ago
I feel your pain.
lordnacho 9y ago
> About 12 years ago, I worked for a company that scored a one. I and a number of other people on the team started working to improve things. Over a span of about six months, we had the team up to a 7. There was still plenty of room to improve but we all felt massive accomplishment. Similar story here, but it's a problem when most of the Joel points are only held up by one person. Eg only one person is driving the version control (managing the server, making people use it, and making people use it. Also making people use it.) Or only one person can be expected to clean up the project so it builds in one action, and you're then also the only person who can document this build action. Or only one person is running the bug DB, and others are resistant to using it. Or only one guy is reading about new tools. When that happens, your Joel score isn't really a 7 or whatever. Or it's a very fragile 7. I do remember an incident where a guy who'd worked for 7 years with us wondered out loud whether there was some magical piece of software that could tell you what the production code was on a given day in the past. That's the kind of thing that makes your respect for the guy collapse.
- caseysoftware 9y ago
  As noted on my original comment, it was myself and a number of others. Of the 10 on the team, there were four of us doing it - I was mid, then one junior, and two seniors - which (iirc) covered 3 of our 4 major projects. A few other team members were convinced later because we jsut had a batter clue of what was going on, what we were planning to do, and what was deployed. This definitely wasn't a lone wolf effort.
grecy 9y ago
Ouch. That has to hurt. > Even the people who hadn't originally been on board with the changes but saw the benefits left. That must provide at least the feeling you and your co-workers had done good things. Keep it up.

reificator 9y ago

I feel your pain.

lordnacho 9y ago

> About 12 years ago, I worked for a company that scored a one. I and a number of other people on the team started working to improve things. Over a span of about six months, we had the team up to a 7. There was still plenty of room to improve but we all felt massive accomplishment. Similar story here, but it's a problem when most of the Joel points are only held up by one person. Eg only one person is driving the version control (managing the server, making people use it, and making people use it. Also making people use it.) Or only one person can be expected to clean up the project so it builds in one action, and you're then also the only person who can document this build action. Or only one person is running the bug DB, and others are resistant to using it. Or only one guy is reading about new tools. When that happens, your Joel score isn't really a 7 or whatever. Or it's a very fragile 7. I do remember an incident where a guy who'd worked for 7 years with us wondered out loud whether there was some magical piece of software that could tell you what the production code was on a given day in the past. That's the kind of thing that makes your respect for the guy collapse.

caseysoftware 9y ago
As noted on my original comment, it was myself and a number of others. Of the 10 on the team, there were four of us doing it - I was mid, then one junior, and two seniors - which (iirc) covered 3 of our 4 major projects. A few other team members were convinced later because we jsut had a batter clue of what was going on, what we were planning to do, and what was deployed. This definitely wasn't a lone wolf effort.

grecy 9y ago

Ouch. That has to hurt. > Even the people who hadn't originally been on board with the changes but saw the benefits left. That must provide at least the feeling you and your co-workers had done good things. Keep it up.