I can’t even recall where I first read this, but someone wrote that you can get a pretty good read on a person by just asking a half-dozen or so A or B questions. The first example I ran across was sorta a way to get a big-picture handle on an individual. I honestly can’t remember the questions, but they were along the lines of the following:

• Republican or Democrat?
• Religious or not?
• Get news from newpaper or TV?
• Member of organizations, or not much of a joiner?

The idea was that the person answering had to pick A or B – whichever was closest (For Question #1 – If you’re an Independent, are you a conservative Independent [Republican] or liberal Independent [Democrat]). And that there’s no wrong answer; it’s just that the handful of responses starts to paint a picture of how you’ll fit in. Questions should not be factual (Madison was the 2nd president or Jefferson was the 2nd president.)

I’m not explaining it all that well, but I think you get the concept. And I’m sure personality tests have such concepts; it’s been some time since I’ve taken a personality test (and failed, as I don’t have one…).

I’ve read about this concept several times since, and it’s interesting. Not exactly an in-depth assessment of an individual, but kind of a quick way to gauge someone that goes beyond a first impression or judging a book by its cover.

I got to thinking about the same for programmers – my current profession. Handful of A or B questions can give you a pretty good idea about how well a developer will fit into the current development environment. For example:

• Microsoft or open source?
• Compiled or scripted?
• (If open source): mySql or Postgres?
• Test as you go along or at the end?
• Rough out project then fill in the blanks or pretty much fill in detail as you go along?
• Few/no comments or many/overload of comments?
• Live editing in production or no live production edits?
• Documentation or not?
• CVS (or equivalent backup) or not?

What about for your profession? What are some of the questions?