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Whenever I get into a new software development project and an induction program or an on-boarding session is being conducted, I feel that some basic questions are important to ask the respective Project Manager or the Team/Tech lead. Over the years, I found that the following would be a good start.

  • Domain
  • Architecture / Data Model of the project
  • Tech stack that is being used
  • Deployment process
  • Reporting hierarchy

What else can be added to the list? Knowing the tech stack in advance would help me in preparing myself during the course of the project. Sometimes, there is spare time and I could use it to learn that tool. Or knowing the deployment process. Knowing in advance if CI/CD is being used, if yes, which tool would we be using; Or are we using ant/maven? Is there anything new to learn about the deployment process, etc etc.

Kindly suggest anything that eases our work.

Sara
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  • Why is it voted to close? If there are questions here that are 'What can I ask during an interview?', why not my question? – Sara May 18 '20 at 12:44
  • Probably it was vtc because it is too broad - anyone inducted onto a team will need to ask questions about what was not explained or poorly explained which would mean an endless list of possible questions. – Solar Mike May 18 '20 at 12:55
  • @SolarMike At this point of time in my career, I felt that if I had asked a few questions during induction itself, it would have saved a lot of time for me. Sometimes, the entire tech stack is not mentioned during induction; I got to know about a few tools being used over the course of time in the project. I had asked this question hoping that there would be some similar questions which would save one's time. – Sara May 18 '20 at 13:07
  • i never heard of "induction". Can "onboarding" be a better term? – aaaaa says reinstate Monica May 18 '20 at 13:25
  • @aaaaasaysreinstateMonica Edited, as per your suggestion. – Sara May 18 '20 at 13:28
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    Looks fine to me, more perhaps than is needed. But I'd have hierarchy higher up the list. I'd expect most of those to be covered in the on boarding process anyway though, so details rather than broad strokes and only if I needed clarification. Don't ask questions just for the sake of it unless you want attention for some reason. It can make it look like the presenter isn't doing a good job. – Kilisi May 18 '20 at 13:32
  • An important question is who the involved people in the project are (often not clear) and certain pecularities of clients. – guest May 18 '20 at 18:18

1 Answers1

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The question is broad in that is essentially asks for a list which is not good.

On the other hand, there is a professional process to navigate new project. It roughly goes as:

ask your manager when you need to know more details to do your job, use extra time (when you have it) to ask broader questions

The problem is to balance being engaged and productive vs being unfocused and distractive to others.

There are several relevant questions, to which you can compare your situation:

aaaaa says reinstate Monica
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