Start fixing long standing bugs nobody wants to address because too complex
Or just boring or "kinda annoying but people are busy with features"
Yes, it's a nice way
Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
51–60 of 186 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#52Get into the project by working right away on implementing a new feature or fixing an existing bug. Then spend additional time from your spare time learning the new stack. Bam, productive by end of week 1, 2 at the latest.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#53> My guys were time reporting into 3 different tools (and this is a Who is the fscking idiot that calls himself a startup founder and makes people report in 3 different tools?
This kind of attitude is really unhelpful. Of course this sort of situation is undesirable, demonstrably, but it's not necessarily a case of idiocy - it's actually very easy for non-technical founders to get into this situation: let's say the developers want to use JIRA, but the non-technical staff find JIRA impossible to use (totally reasonable), so they want to carry on using Trello; straight away you've got tasks…
While crude, I do think raverbashing has a point here. If a 10 person startup already requires their devs to use 3 different reporting tools that startup has a problem. If you can't streamline at a small size like this you won't stay nimble and you won't make it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#54I am 1 month into my new position, same position you're in - new stack & straight into senior role. My tips so far: 1) Take over all the admin stuff you can to free up your devs from distraction and pointless tasks. Productivity and morale will immediately go up. My guys were time reporting into 3 different tools (and this is a <10 person startup!), I just started writing a summary of our standups and told them they…
Great tips, but I would add that those 2 hours spent exploring the code can actually be useful. I often need to read the code a few times before the big picture starts to come into view, so unless I need an immediate answer, I usually prefer to dig for it myself.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of attitude is really unhelpful. Of course this sort of situation is undesirable, demonstrably, but it's not necessarily a case of idiocy - it's actually very easy for non-technical founders to get into this situation: let's say the developers want to use JIRA, but the non-technical staff find JIRA impossible to use (totally reasonable), so they want to carry on using Trello; straight away you've got tasks…
> This kind of attitude is really unhelpful. No, what's unhelpful is less than 10 people acting out in an noncohesive way This is weak management and a lack of focus
I wouldn't go and say this is due to stupidity but as a senior professional that would sure be my starting point. That company is in a less than desirable situation, how many other gaffes are there?
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#56> My guys were time reporting into 3 different tools (and this is a Who is the fscking idiot that calls himself a startup founder and makes people report in 3 different tools?
The kind of startup that knows when it's time to hire a lead dev.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#57Tackle the backlog - those bugs that have been just sitting there for months or even years because other things keep getting prioritized above them. They may be minor, low-priority fixes, but when you solve them, what people will think is "Wow! This developer fixed a bug that no one else could in 3 years! That's always annoyed me but now it's finally fixed!". Next thing you know, they'll be giving you the most import…
I'd also add that one of the big things to look at is the documentation and start improving it as a way for you to understand the systems.
> and start improving it as a way for you to understand the systems.
Be aware that to do this in a time-efficient way, you might need to pull in one of the existing engineers who can give you the lay of the land.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#58Start fixing long standing bugs nobody wants to address because too complex
Note to junior engineers reading this: If you don't already know the codebase, this can be a terrible way to get to know it because you get sucked down rabbit holes and end up having spent 2 weeks with not much to show for it.
You need to exercise skill of being able to do an organised exploration of the codebase, probably producing documentation along the way.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#59Me go-to for learning a new code base is fix bugs, fix performance problems.
The bugs give me an overview of the system and let me develop my mental map of the code base, the performance problems give me an overview of what's been done wrong.
Re: Ask HN: How do you become productive in a new project as a senior developer?
#60Starting with a new (ish?) machine, write down everything you need to do to get your development environment set up and building the code.
Now, take a step back. How easy was this? It should ... must... be absolutely frustration free. If not, fix that.
To come up to speed on the tech stack, go sit with the other developers. Get a feel for how they are using the technology. Then, start picking off some smaller issues from the backlog and try and fix those.
Don't make assumptions. Learn the tech without an opinion. Sure, you won't like some of it (nobody likes everything), but find out if the team likes it. If they do, don't try to change that.