I've worked as a software developer for 4 years and find that there is a specific scenario I dislike very much.

The scenario is that I am "thrown" at a problem with no internal support. I will be tasked by my manager to fix something that went wrong and will have no useful access to how anything is done, how the software works, no documentation, all the test code I dig up are out-dated and do not work.

The problem is that I am literally "stuck" with this type of cases until it is fixed or I leave the company, then whatever I don't fix goes to someone else. When I started I inherited some of these, and well, I still had them when I left. I don't think the manager breathed down my neck to fix these, but having these "unfixable" cases with me bothered me quite a bit, and felt it was pointless to give them to me.

Just recalling from my last role, there was a case dealing with FTP connections. It took me 2 days of talking with people around the office (100 people office) to get a definitive answer on whether our internal FTP connections to the outside are passive or active. My manager obviously didn't know, so he pointed me to different people, then I had to track down false leads, bad leads, people who aren't sure, etc.

I'm not sure how to ask an interviewer about this type of scenario. How can I ask a potential employer about internal facing resources to assist developers? I am thinking of either some sort of documentation practices, or mentoring role for new hires, or something... but I have no idea how to frame the question.