Life as a team lead would be easier if every new project started from scratch. But the reality is different: you often have to take on someone else's code, understand the old architecture, catch the elusive context, and organize chaos.

It becomes even more difficult when a project is handed over from another team – especially when documentation is fragmented, decisions are unclear, and dependencies are not obvious. So, how can you quickly get up to speed, avoid getting lost in uncertainty, and organize the process in a way that helps the team work productively?

How not to drown in a new project

Every new project comes with some (or a lot of) stress. But it becomes manageable if you know which strings to pull. Here are a few steps that can help:

Set the vector: why are we doing this? Understand why your project exists in the first place. Sales? Improving UX? Adding new functionality? A team lead cannot be effective if they don’t understand the end goal. Start by talking to the business or client to identify key success indicators, and then try to mentally” align these goals with your work. Clarify the main user scenarios.

‍Draw a map: architecture under a magnifying glass. You should have a clear diagram of how all the system components interact. Which services interact with which systems? What is data stored? Study the documentation if it exists; if it doesn’t, start gathering it yourself. Make sure that every team member has access to up-to-date information. Validate the existing data: work with the current team and the client to ensure that the data is still relevant and usable.

At the onboarding stage, you don't need to go into implementation details. You just need to understand how current the documentation is, how to set up the project, and what integrations, logging, and monitoring are in place. Pay special attention to sections where you’re unsure how to approach them.

‍Remove chaos: the access matrix. When a project involves many people and systems, access chaos is the first thing that needs to be sorted out. Create an access matrix: specify who should have access to which systems and who should not. This table will be a lifesaver when onboarding new employees and will save time. Simply walk new employees through the access matrix and quickly reach out to the client if any permissions are missing.

Handovers: secrets to successful knowledge transfer 

Handovers are sessions where the "old hands" of the project pass on essential knowledge to newcomers. Many people treat them as formalities, but that’s a huge mistake.

Focus: topic-specific sessions. Break handovers into distinct topics: architecture, deployment, QA, etc. This allows for better focus and preparation. Before each meeting, review any available documentation on the topic and prepare questions. Be sure to share these questions with the participants in advance to avoid wasting time on unnecessary discussions.

Ask uncomfortable questions.  Inquire about typical mistakes the old team made. What are the most difficult aspects of the project?  Are there important, non-obvious features that aren’t documented anywhere? What information is missing if you need to upload changes or run tests tomorrow? You can collect these questions in advance and send them to the client before the call – this will make the conversation more meaningful and allow everyone to focus on the essentials.

Don't lose information: record meetings. Record all handovers and keep the recordings publicly accessible. This will be useful if a new team member wants to quickly get up to speed. Even months later, you can refer back to these recordings to recall details. New team members can simply review the recordings instead of bombarding more experienced colleagues with endless questions in the chat. 

Plan wisely: tasks and priorities

How can you distribute tasks to make sure everything important gets done, without wasting resources? The keys are planning and auditing.

Understand the backlog. Review the current backlog. Which tasks are critical? Which ones can be postponed? For example, if you know the project will be redesigned in a year, then working on architectural updates may be unnecessary. Prioritize tasks based on the overall goals of the project.

Conduct an audit: this is your insurance. Even if the client doesn’t require an audit, do it for yourself. Evaluate the architecture, integrations, and technical debt. This will help identify weak points of the system and serve as your safety net if something goes wrong.

An audit helps you define the risks and limitations early on. If a client suddenly needs an implementation that the system cannot support, you’ll always have something to show them.  The biggest challenge here is usually the “blank slate” problem  – you don’t know how much time it will take or what should be done first. You can dig through the code endlessly, but there’s no point in doing so. Focus on key priorities. For example, look only at the issues to the current backlog and the feature closest to implementation. 

‍Sometimes you need to reassess an estimate – and this shouldn’t seem strange to you, the team, or the client. There are situations of uncertainty where it feels like the estimate might be way off. In such cases, make an estimate for research, not implementation. Clients will have realistic expectations – they’ll know what you are currently working on. Developers won’t be tied to false estimates, meaning they won’t have to work late or disappoint the client with incomplete tasks.

Experiment with Proof of Concept (PoC). If you’re unsure whether the chosen approach will work, create a PoC. This is a small-scale experiment to test if your idea will work. The key here is not to get bogged down in the details. Remember, the goal of PoC is to determine whether the idea can be implemented, not to produce a finished product.

Deployment without stress: setting up releases

Managing releases is another key aspect of a team lead’s role. Not everything that sounds simple turns out to be so in practice.

Automate where possible. Find out how the project pipelines are set up. Are there fully automated processes? If not, figure out which stages require manual intervention and work to optimize them.

Agree on release windows. Before each release, notify all stakeholders: the team, the client, and the users. Define fixed time windows for applying changes to minimize risks.

‍Always have a plan B. Keep a rollback plan somewhere "under your pillow". If a release causes problems, who will fix them and how? Create a step-by-step checklist for handling such situations.