Bloggers Club: First day in a team

I’ve had many first days in a team since I started my testing career almost nine years ago. But it’s always been daunting and there’s a lot to take in.

New faces.

New names.

New context.

New project.

I’m often trying to gain my bearings and not necessarily looking to start testing on my very first day. (For getting started on a testing project, read this)

Here’s an idea of my thought process or what I’m trying to learn/gather in my first day in a team:

What’s everyone’s roles in the team?

How is testing done and who does it?

What are the team dynamics? (this can be very hard to read in just one day, but it is interesting to see how people interact with each other when you know so little about them since you just met them)

Who will I click with? (I do like working with a few people in a team that I really click with and will enjoy having coffees with)

Is there anything I need to request access to, that isn’t already currently being set up? (usually a team knows that I’m going to join the team, so requests have been sent but sometimes something has been forgotten or they forgot to start the process until I turned up one day)

For more tips on getting started at a testing project, check out my eBook: Starting Your Software Testing Career