Perhaps some of the 12 tests/tips are. But I think there is some good stuff in there for solo or small-team projects. I myself have never used a bug tracker, but I sure have spent a lot of time coming up with some sort of solution for that problem. These solutions get pretty hodge-podge after a while (wiki's, email, white boards, notes, etc.), and I am never satisfied. His argument for a good bug-tracker is compelling and it seems like it would benefit any project.
Well, remember that he's selling bugtracking software. ;-) Many of Joel's articles are very good, but remember that they are designed to sell his product.
You do need *some* sort of bug tracking system, but I've never found one that I like. I've used Bugzilla, Mantis, FogBugz (Joel's product) and reported on Jira, Sun's bugtracking system, and SourceForge, but the only one I halfway-liked was Jira. At work, I use pencil & paper along with fixing bugs as they're reported. For my startup, I'll likely roll up some custom solution, as I haven't seen anything that comes close to meeting our requirements. I'll take a second look at what's out there first, though - I've heard good things about Trac, and maybe someone somewhere has come up with a decent bugtracker.
