I'm trying to get a high-level overview of my team's current system, and I have no idea on how to do it.

Question

I have realized that I need a very high level overview of the current system and what other systems it communicates with. I have no idea on how to do it; I'm currently planning to have a meeting with my EM.

I have access to the Quip, Google Drive, and some brown bag sessions. I have watched a few of them, but it all seems very fragmented. After I figure all this out, I plan to create a doc which can help others better in the future.

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

Talking to your EM is a great start! Get a good POC(s) from them to talk to for getting this high-level understanding. Trying to understand a system through sheer consumption (watching brown bags, reading wikis, slogging through code, etc) is almost never good ROI, especially if you don't already have a strong high-level understanding of the system. This is a very common trap many onboarding engineers fall into. When writing this new technical overview document, think to yourself what it will take to make this document evergreen, so you don't need to update it every month. There's a reason why this document doesn't exist to begin with - How you can buck the trend and create a truly long-lasting useful resource? Use the ELI5 Subreddit for inspiration on how to write a wiki that's truly easy to understand and approachable for newer engineers.

I'm trying to get a high-level overview of my team's current system, and I have no idea on how to do it.

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