In Part 1, Joel discussed licensing models.  In this episode, Joel and Ken talk about the other criteria in his selection process.  

Criteria

• License model - See BusinessCast Episode 3
• Code Quality
  • JavaNCSS - Free tool (and maven plugin) to analyze lines of code / number of methods, MCCabe metrics etc...
  • JDepend - analyzes and checks for cyclic dependencies
• Runtime Analysis
  • Do a performance test - check CPU, memory, I/O peaks, etc...
• Design
  • Grade all software by reading the code, checking for code smell, etc. Set a short timebox to see if you can review the code and see structure, organization, etc...
  • Pay attention to Bob Martin's four design principles
  • Can you understand how they organized the code?
• Project Velocity
• Pedigree
• Community
• Market Penetration - ohloh.net is a good tool here
• Documentation quality - can you read the docs?  Read the code and understand how the docs relate?  Dev, admin, test, install, etc.?
• Support
• Functionality and Features

Enjoy the podcast!

Joel and Ken