Before jumping into the various tools to map out and probe the network, security, and systems in place, it is a good practice to review the current documentation that you may receive as a part of the stakeholder meeting. Along with that, you will want to interview various teams within the organization to get some background information on what the topology is like, prior to you having to discover it yourself. It definitely makes the job of the penetration tester easier if you have some sort of layout already defined, as opposed to spending days probing and mapping to just get to that point.

Here is a list of teams I tend to talk with. The teams you choose will ultimately depend on the organization and what is in scope for the penetration test:

• Network Team: Interview the network team to get a better understanding of the current network topology...