When you say "be productive," whose judgement will be making that assessment? I ask because if you were hired to come in and right the ship, writing tests migh

When you say "be productive," whose judgement will be making that assessment? I ask because if you were hired to come in and right the ship, writing tests might not be perceived by your manager as the right thing to do. If you need to impress the other developers, that might or might not be the right choice. If you are trying to communicate progress upward, then I would make an honest assessment of the challenges and write down a plan for your manager. If you are trying to impress downward, then that's probably a cultural challenge and you can figure out what to do from the comments here. It really depends who cares about your progress.