How can i be more involved with the new project?

I have not been actively involved in this project and slowly my manager wants me to get involved.

Is it possible that they don't know that you are involved? It's also possible that they've been operating in single player mode for the last few days/weeks, so it's bypassed them that they should be inviting you to the meetings.

I would try to be direct and send them a message that you talked with your manager, and you're excited to work with them on implementing the project. Let them know that you are interested on getting up to speed with the project and are interested in joining the meetings going forward to learn more about the project.

I have already told my lead to shadow me in some of the meetings so I am aware of the context. But he doesn't involve me.

Are these meetings different than the ones that the lead is leading?

The reason I ask is these meetings help us to understand the architecture POV and get to know the system better.

You can also schedule a 1:1 meeting with your lead and talk about the delegation of the work so it's even clearer that you'll be helping out.

The solution here is straightforward: You need to get on those meetings.

Unfortunately, what your tech lead is doing is very common where they restrict access to information. This can be done due to a more closed-off company culture, them being more selfish (you are technically more valuable if you are the only one with critical information), or a mix of the 2 reasons.

No matter the reason, you need to fix this. You should go to your manager and use them as an intermediary to deliver feedback to your lead to get you on those meetings. Make sure to provide clear examples of how missing key information led to you struggling to land impact efficiently on the project. Your goal is to provide a well-thought out case with evidence, so it doesn't seem like you're just complaining.

The best way to get more involved is to add value. If you can do that consistently, everyone on the team, including your lead, will want to include you in meetings and decisions.

How can you add value? One good way of doing this if you don't already have the access to meetings is to look at the "exhaust" of the project work:

• Look at meeting notes and propose an idea to make something faster or easier
• Look at the code output and make some (non-controversial) improvements or bug fixes

I also put some thoughts on finding new projects here: How to find new projects to work on within the same company?