Is Your Company In Trouble?

Obviously, I'm going to look at this from a software development perspective, but it will include some general business observations (10 years of work experience gives you some business sense). Without espousing a particular methodology (although I'm sure I've made it clear what I support), ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this Company offer a challenge that's innovative and interesting?
• Do they offer easy access to innovative and interesting challenges (how easy is it to work on something that interests me)?
• How would a new idea be received? With questions like "How do we budget for it?" or "How can we use that to save money?"
• Is the Company worried about meeting estimates, rather than providing functionality?
• What's the Meeting/Time Quotient? Do you have to constantly attend meetings and provide status, or can you get your work done with few interruptions?
• How is the office environment? Are you provided with just what you need to get the job done, or do you have an office that you'd like to show people?
• Is their business model currently or potentially threatened by other Companies? Are they doing anything to become/remain the industry leader? How open are they to new ideas to help the company?
  
• What is the company attitude about new software? Can you try it out and see if it helps your situation, or do you need approval to try it?
• How long does it take to "do something"? How many steps in how many systems involving how many people does it take to report a bug/checkout/fix/build/deploy/test/check in/close the bug? If any of those numbers is large, what is preventing the system from being optimized?