Book Review - Joel On Software

Well over the weekend I finished reading "Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity". Only Joel can make his title so gosh darn "out of the ordinary". Just like him!

Not surprising, the book was great. Of course, it was dejas vous all over again. In case you didn't know, the book is a collection of some of his greatest articles on joelonsoftware.com. What was interesting was reading it AWAY from the computer. Reading Joel while listening to the water break on the beach was an entirely different experience for me. I highly recommend it. :)

Anyways, if you read his articles religiously you will probably not find anything new here. The book's greatest asset is that you are not tethered to your computer to read it! And that made the difference for me. There were articles that I just forgot about over the years, and it was nice to get a refresher.

It also let me look critical at myself, the development process I lead and 'everything technical' around the office. When I originally did the Joel Test a few years ago I got a miserable 2. Redoing the test at the end of last week, I realized I am now firing on 10 out of 12. I am being extremely critical of myself; if I blink just right I can say we have 12 out of 12, but thats not being entirely honest with myself. And I will fix those last few issues in the coming months.

All in all, if you haven't been keeping up with reading Joel on Software, or you are new to him, I would HIGHLY recommend the book. It is an easy and light read which goes by quickly. If you are strapped for cash or don't like reading 'analog', then just go to his site. I would suggest starting with his archive index.