Background. Within the software industry, it is commonly estimated that software professionals invest a substantial portion of their work hours in the process of understanding existing systems. In this context, an ineffective technical onboarding process, which introduces newcomers to software under development, can result in a prolonged period for them to absorb the necessary knowledge required to become productive in their roles. Goal. The present study aims to explore the familiarity of managers, leaders, and developers with software visualization tools and how these tools are employed to facilitate the technical onboarding of new team members. Method. To address the research problem, we built upon the insights gained through the literature and embraced a sequential exploratory approach. This approach incorporated quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from practitioners using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings. Our findings demonstrate a gap between the concept of software visualization and the practical use of onboarding tools and techniques. Overall, practitioners do not systematically incorporate software visualization tools into their technical onboarding processes due to a lack of conceptual understanding and awareness of their potential benefits. Conclusion. The software industry could benefit from standardized and evolving onboarding models, improved by incorporating software visualization techniques and tools to support program comprehension of newcomers in the software projects.

翻译：背景。在软件行业中，普遍认为软件专业人员需投入大量工作时长来理解现有系统。在此背景下，低效的技术入职流程——即向新成员介绍正在开发的软件——可能导致其需要更长时间来吸收所需知识，从而在岗位上发挥作用。目标。本研究旨在探讨管理人员、领导者及开发者对软件可视化工具的熟悉程度，以及这些工具如何用于促进新团队成员的技术入职。方法。为应对研究问题，我们基于文献获得的见解，采用了顺序探索性方法。该方法结合了对从业者通过问卷和半结构化访谈收集的数据进行的定量与定性分析。发现。我们的发现揭示了软件可视化概念与入职工具及技术实际应用之间的差距。总体而言，从业者由于缺乏对软件可视化工具概念的理解及其潜在效益的认识，未能系统性地将其纳入技术入职流程。结论。软件行业可受益于标准化且不断演进的入职模型，通过融入软件可视化技术与工具，支持新成员在软件项目中的程序理解能力，从而提升入职效率。