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Ask HN: As a new hire how to deal with legacy codebase and introduce standards

2 pointsby ipialmost 5 years ago
Recently accepted an offer to join a small size company as a mid developer. From the internal scoop and the interview I already know the code base is not great. There is a lot of technical debt, legacy tooling, poor coding practices and a lot of junk. I don&#x27;t want to give up and just write more cruft or throw tantrums and pester everyone to re-write stuff.<p>If you are in my position, How would you approach ? What are the methodologies you follow to get yourself comfortable to start contributing to the existing codebase ? How do you gain existing team&#x27;s confidence so as to persuade them to make some changes instead of sounding bossy ?<p>I faced similar situation in previous position and find it really difficult to get started. Any pointers are welcome!

2 comments

brudgersalmost 5 years ago
<i>How do you gain existing team&#x27;s confidence so as to persuade them to make some changes instead of sounding bossy?</i><p>A new hire lacks the contextual knowledge to hold an <i>informed</i> opinion about the way things ought to be done. The phrase &quot;introduce standards&quot; is insulting to the existing team.
junaid1460almost 5 years ago
Approach things slowly. With your every PR send small improvements, make sure people do review your code. Also brief it during stand-ups