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If you just arrived at a company why are you pushing to change anything. They obviously already have a working process and you should be careful to change anyth

If you just arrived at a company why are you pushing to change anything. They obviously already have a working process and you should be careful to change anything that works, especially when you may not yet know all of the more hidden details.

bytasv 8y ago
Even if the process that they have is working it doesn't mean that it can not be improved. And if you obviously see the parts that could be improved because you already stepped on the same rake many times why not do that? Ofc as a newcomer trying to change things you are always gonna be welcomed with strange looks but that's another side of it - how to implement the changes so that everyone is happy...
arethuza 8y ago
More at a management level, but I have joined small commercially successful companies who had utterly dysfunctional development processes (backups? revision control? sane deployment processes?....).
hurryharry 8y ago
I second this - there is so much to absorb when joining a new team/company. Absorb as much as you can about process in place. Ask plenty of questions. So I would suggest to setup few meetings with right people just to get thigns in place.
lvh 8y ago
There are lots of useful changes you can make that don't break the world but do materially improve things. I already gave an example elsewhere of aws-vault. Similarly, CI/CD/code review are easy wins that not everyone has already. You're assuming everything is copacetic right now, but that's not a given. I doubt any startup would take the position that there's nothing left to improve. That doesn't mean you're going to start by burning the world down and starting over.
PeterisP 8y ago
It depends on why you're brought in to the company. Especially in management it's not uncommon to hire people with the explicit notion that they don't have a satisfactory working process, it needs significant changes to achieve the desired results, and the new hire would be expected to start fixing the current process almost immediately.
- lijason 8y ago
  I would argue that even then you need to assess before making changes. If you're brought on for your expertise in process, you need to trust your own judgment on where the problems lie. Whoever is hiring you may have a sense that something is wrong, and may even have areas they think are broken, but if you're brought in as the expert, you should assess for yourself.

bytasv 8y ago

Even if the process that they have is working it doesn't mean that it can not be improved. And if you obviously see the parts that could be improved because you already stepped on the same rake many times why not do that? Ofc as a newcomer trying to change things you are always gonna be welcomed with strange looks but that's another side of it - how to implement the changes so that everyone is happy...

arethuza 8y ago

More at a management level, but I have joined small commercially successful companies who had utterly dysfunctional development processes (backups? revision control? sane deployment processes?....).

hurryharry 8y ago

I second this - there is so much to absorb when joining a new team/company. Absorb as much as you can about process in place. Ask plenty of questions. So I would suggest to setup few meetings with right people just to get thigns in place.

lvh 8y ago

There are lots of useful changes you can make that don't break the world but do materially improve things. I already gave an example elsewhere of aws-vault. Similarly, CI/CD/code review are easy wins that not everyone has already. You're assuming everything is copacetic right now, but that's not a given. I doubt any startup would take the position that there's nothing left to improve. That doesn't mean you're going to start by burning the world down and starting over.

PeterisP 8y ago

It depends on why you're brought in to the company. Especially in management it's not uncommon to hire people with the explicit notion that they don't have a satisfactory working process, it needs significant changes to achieve the desired results, and the new hire would be expected to start fixing the current process almost immediately.

lijason 8y ago
I would argue that even then you need to assess before making changes. If you're brought on for your expertise in process, you need to trust your own judgment on where the problems lie. Whoever is hiring you may have a sense that something is wrong, and may even have areas they think are broken, but if you're brought in as the expert, you should assess for yourself.