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Re:Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out by chriszhang on Thursday January 28, 2021 @05:32AM (#25940277)
I have not faced this problem. I say that there will be a learning curve to understand the product before a new developer can start fixing bugs or adding enhancements. Managers have always understood it.

For contractors too the learning curve is part of the deal. The contractors get paid by the hour when they are climbing the learning curve. Managers seem fine with it.

Re:Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out by tudorgirba on Thursday January 28, 2021 @05:34AM (#25940294)
What is typically considered an acceptable learning cost / duration in your experience? I am not asking because I do not agree that there is a learning curve (we call it assessment), I am asking because I am curious what people expect.
Re:Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out by viraptor on Thursday January 28, 2021 @05:56AM (#25940444)
There's no "duration". There's "what's the proportion of time you'll spend learning". Unless you have a very repetitive job, it will never go down to 0. It will just move towards it over time.

And the rate of change depends on the person as much as on your internal structure, documentation, scope, etc.

Re:Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out by pan69 on Thursday January 28, 2021 @05:40AM (#25940335)
> What is typically considered an acceptable learning cost / duration in your experience?

How long does it take to do a crossword puzzle or play a game of chess? As with everything, it depends.

Re:Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out by nicoburns on Thursday January 28, 2021 @06:02AM (#25940473)
This depends greatly on both the Seniority of the position and the complexity of the code base in question. Generally jobs I've worked have expected it to be on the order of 1-3 months, although I've found it hasn't always taken that long in practice.
Re:Developers spend most of their time figuring the system out by adrianN on Thursday January 28, 2021 @07:09AM (#25940854)
Unless you work on trivial codebases you never stop learning. The code changes faster than you can keep up. It's a constant overhead for everything you do.