I've started to familiarize myself with the source code and build tools.
I'll be posting regular status updates on my blog (linked below) for others
to follow getting started with bitcoin development.

http://hewo.xedoloh.com/bitcoin-dev/

A tally from August indicated that I may need to slog through 280,000 lines
of code to get up to speed. I sampled
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/key.cpp and skimmed it
in about 5 minutes, putting me at 2600 lines per hour. At that rate, I
would need to devote 110 hours to read the entire code base.

With that time investment I could get a fair amount of testing done, so I'm
curious if we have a map of the most important areas to study for new
developers and automated test writers.

Thanks for your time,

Will Bickford
"In Google We Trust"