I've been thinking to raise this question long time ago since I ever started my career as Software QA. We, as IT professionals (that's how I consider us, regardless of the education level) are always facing challenges at work no matter what kind of environment / sort of company we work for. I'm sure on the fact that there is no ideal company in the world where IT department works as smooth as Swiss watches (and we can argue on that probably in the different topic). Slow environments, misunderstanding in the requirements, broken dev / qa / stage builds, late night deployments....you name it. My understanding of being in the industry for over 6 years is that there is no way to escape those situations, nevertheless every team member has to try to minimize them.
The topic that I would like to discuss today is about QA team members, that join new companies. I know that almost everywhere there is a lack of proper documentation (sometimes it is missed at all) on the working projects and usually it takes time to get to understand business logic and infrastructure of the environments. Well, time equals money (that company pays you) and leadership expects you to get on the board right away. But the other side of the coin is you, as experienced tester with the great reputation and feedback shown in the interview, also would like to step on that moving train and display all your best practices. My opinion is that there are 2 cases:
1.Ever since your first day you stay calmed and relaxed. Not disturbing anybody with the "proper" questions about where do download this and that or whom to ask on application/back-end access. You witness some bustling going on around, just trying to listen to people and get an idea from here and there. PROS: Everyone in the team likes you, considers you as a cool, respectable, gentle and easy-going person. CONS: Even in couple of weeks being at the new position you barely understand what is the project about, who is responsible for what, and when the hell I get my workstation and security badge.
2. You start as a crazy horse. Get everyone with the questions on your every concern. Destructing manager every morning stand up on your today's tasks and goals. Standing by DB administrator cubical till he finally provides you with the access. PROS: Within probably several months you start showing good results on the test case coverage / automation scripting. Already have a decent understanding of the projects and their interconnection with each other. Leadership start seeing you as a potential management person with the right skill set. CONS: Everyone hates you for being annoying, bypassing you at every possible chance. No answered emails and Lync messages, everybody is busy when you are in the visibility zone.
My today's question is: what do you consider as a right approach or may be a right consensus in assimilating at the new company with the poor documentation? Thanks.