Well said! I guess if some of Joel's points have become common sense then that speaks well of the test. And of our industry. :) I don't have a strong opinion a

Well said! I guess if some of Joel's points have become common sense then that speaks well of the test. And of our industry. :) I don't have a strong opinion about buying the best tools money can buy but it seems fair enough to include tool quality as a factor in how good a software team is. You might be right that adequate is adequate but it's not binary. Better is better. As for your point about hallway testing, I think the point is that that's a bare minimum. Deeper testing with the target audience is even better but it's amazing how common it is to never watch over a real user's shoulder (screencast, whatever) as they try to actually use your thing.