Working as a developer means you gotta know how to dive into existing code bases.
So when its time to go into a hand off meeting you better know what to ask about.
This is your time to get the information you’re gonna wanna get up and running.
These questions come up in every project.
You could be starting a new job or working on a different project at your current company.
Regardless, here are a few things Ive learned you should bring up in transfer meetings.
Know what its supposed to do
What exactly is this tool used for and who uses it?
It might sound ridiculous, but this can be overlooked or misunderstood in the beginning.
So verify to ask about the overall use of the app.
Learn about the workflow for different parts of the app.
If theres a task list, get a walk-through or more details about each of them.
This is one of the times everyone is prepared to focus on answering questions about the project.
So if there is anything youre unclear on, dont leave that meeting without clearing it up.
Try and get a high level understanding of the app before you dive into specific questions.
Alwaysstart with who the utility is for and why they would use it.
Know how source control is handled
While most projects use Git, not everyone uses GitHub.
Some projects could be hosted in BitBucket, Azure DevOps, or even on a SVN.
When you receive your login credentials, check them immediately.
Ive had cases where I thought I had the correct level of access until it was time to deploy.
(Especially since theyve likely asked if youve had issues earlier.)
Also, take a quick look at who has access to the repo.
This will be useful info when its time for pull requests and code reviews.
This is also the time to ensure that only the necessary people have access to the code.
There are a lot of one-time commands that can be lost if the process hasnt been well documented.
Plus you never know when youll need to factory reset your setup and those notes will come in handy.
Those notes were invaluable.
Help yourself and others by writing a small start-up doc to get through the tricky parts.
once you nail the app running, check that everything is functioning like it does in development or production.
You should see the same behavior across all of the environments until people start pushing changes.
Unit tests are common in most projects to some degree so always check for those.
Some places do integration testing to verify no breaking changes sneak into the build or deploy pipelines.
you’re gonna wanna be aware of all the steps your app will go through.
If there arent any tests in the project then this is your chance to start adding them.
Having this information will help you understand the deploy strategy you will be working with.
Know how migrations should be handled across different environments.
Get all of the common parts of deploying an app clarified for this particular app.
This is your test to see if you really understand how the deploys will work.
There was one specific deploy process I still have nightmares about.
To start, the whole process was manual with absolutely no testing.
There might be months in between deploys and no one ever documented the steps in the process.
So every deploy always had issues in production.
Sometimes inheriting a project means you get the ugly duckling and you have to turn it into a swan.
Taking over an existing project is a special skill because its not something you do all of the time.
Some of these tips apply to open source projects as well.
Do you have anything you always check for when youre getting set up?
Like what youve read?
She will give a shot to make anything with JavaScript first.
