use Perl

• My take (Score:1)

  by jplindstrom (594)

  Something like this:

  1. Mature supporting infrastructure.
  2. Coding skills of team members.
  3. Quality of project management.
  4. Non-rushed deadline.
  5. Clean, well-organized code.
  6. Choice of framework or tools (aside from language).
  7. Choice of implementation language.
  8. Good (and plentiful) hardware.
  9. Good documentation.

  Notice how I sneakily expanded "just tests" to encompass the whole concept of supporting tools, e.g. automated tests, version control, continous integration, etc.
  
  Project size would also belong somewhere near the top of
• Good people (Score:2)

  by brian_d_foy (44)

  jplindstrom beat me to the punch. I'd vote for his item 0. Good people ensure that the right stuff happens. I like to emphasize that projecs are people doing something. It's not some abstract thing on a managers white board. :)
• challenging... (Score:1)

  by jonswar (7880)

  Quality of project management.
  
  CLASS of implementation language - e.g. agile versus ancient
  
  Automated tests.
  
  Choice of framework or tools (aside from language).
  
  Coding skills of team members.
  
  Good documentation.
  
  Clean, well-organized code.
  
  Good (and plentiful) hardware.
  
  Non-rushed deadline.
  
  This was challenging. Many of these items would doom a project if completely missing, but matter far less if they are merely substandard. I would much rather have adequate levels of all of these than great on some and terrible on
• good question! (Score:2)

  by lachoy (1663)

  Here's mine:

     1. Coding skills of team members.
     2. Good (and plentiful) hardware.
     3. Choice of framework or tools (aside from language).
     4. Automated tests.
     5. Clean, well-organized code.
     6. Choice of implementation language.
     7. Good documentation.
     8. Quality of project management.
     9. Non-rushed deadline.

  I tend to agree with Bill de Hora [dehora.net] that source control, a build system, and issue tracking are
• here's my shot (Score:1)

  by mpeters (5802)

  1. Automated Tests
  2. Clean, well-organized code.
  3. Quality of project management
  4. Good documentation
  5. Coding skills of team members
  6. Non-rushed deadline
  7. Good (and plentiful) hardware
  8. Choice of implementation language
  9. Choice of framework or tools (aside from language)
  
• My take. (Score:1)

  by jk2addict (4946)

  1. Quality of project management.
  2. Good documentation.
  3. Automated tests.
  4. Clean, well-organized code.
  5. Coding skills of team members.
  6. Non-rushed deadline.
  7. Choice of framework or tools (aside from language).
  8. Choice of implementation language.
  9. Good (and plentiful) hardware.
  
  If no one is leading, things go nuts.
  Lead can't happen without docs (requirements at least). Testing tracks intent, documentation, and regression. Skliz can be learned/aquired, and poor skils can be overcome with good testing an
• Let's introduce some real numbers... (Score:1)

  by btilly (5037)

  Let me pull out my handy copy of Software Estimation by, of course, Steve McConnell. On page 67 he has a nice chart of the average impact of different ratings factors on the development of a 100,000 line of code project. Their factors do not map directly to your list, but here is my best attempt to map it.

  1. Good documentation. This reflects the Requirements Analyst Capability, which has an impact factor of 2.00.
  2. Coding skills of team members. Maps to Programmer Capability (General), a factor of 1.76.
• Better late than never (Score:1)

  by Phred (5358)

  My take on this:

  • 1. Quality of project management; I think nobody wants to admit it, but good management is crucial for setting end goals and keeping the minutae out of your way
  • 2. Automated tests; this is absolutely crucial, you can't ship unless 100% of tests are passing.
  • 3. Coding skills of team members; good coders imply that 2) will happen on its own
  • 4. Choice of implementation language; you can't write a high performance firewall in php, for instance (not to pick on php)
  • 5. Good (and plentiful) hardw