Berlin

November 4 & 5, 2024

New York

September 4 & 5, 2024

Why onboarding to a company's legacy codebase sucks, and how to make it work for your team

Shanea Leven discusses the history and context of the problems that plague codebase onboarding. And with problems come solutions such as tips and tools that make it easier for engineers to onboard a legacy codebase.
March 09, 2023

It’s not uncommon to hear from engineers and their managers on how difficult it is to onboard a company’s legacy codebase.

We’ve all heard horror stories about untangling spaghetti code and spending hours on self onboarding just to realize that you still have no idea on what areas require the most attention. This kind of experience creates hesitation and friction for new engineers to review code and requires more resources from engineering managers to onboard new engineers.

In this talk, I will be discussing the history and context of the problems that plague codebase onboarding. And with problems comes solutions such as tips and tools that make it easier for engineers to onboard a legacy codebase. My goal for more senior engineering leaders is to provide a solution that helps deliver more value and make engineering teams more efficient during the current economic reality that we’re facing.