Communication must be Clear, Efficient, and Timely to be effective.
The way we use communication tools can help or hinder our efforts.
Development Principles:
Communication
Clear Communication
Clear communication is where all parties understand the message in generally the same way. If a message can be interpreted multiple ways or is vague in it’s meaning, receivers of the message have to work extra hard to interpret the message.
Take, for example, the sentence “I like to eat pasta grapes and grandpa.” The sender of the message may have meant that they like three things which include their grandfather as well as eating pasta and grapes. Or, they may like eating pasta grapes (whatever those are) and their grandfather! In this example, the addition of some well-placed commas would let us know that they like to eat pasta as well as grapes, and they also enjoy their grandfather.
Potentially, the entire sentence could be rewritten to improve clarity. A better version of the sentence would read “The things I like include my grandfather as well as eating pasta and grapes.”
Efficient Communication
Efficient communication goes hand-in-hand with Clear communication. Efficient communication is precise, pointed, and delivers the important information in a well-structured, easy-to-parse manner. Generally, important information is placed at the top of the message with ancillary information coming later. In other cases, a series of steps or points may proceed and build to a conclusion. Overall, the goal of efficient communication is to deliver needed and important information to the recipient as quickly as possible.
Timely Communication
The timing of communication is very important. Telling the captain of a ship about an iceberg AFTER the ship has hit it is pointless. Telling the captain when the ship is about to hit it is slightly better. Telling the captain about the iceberg as soon is it is spotted is probably best. At the same time, delivering information radically in advance may not be advantageous as it could be lost.
Finally, responding to questions in a timely manner is important. Consider the following exchange:
Mgr: Did you complete that task?
Dev: I was totally working but then had to do another thing and the there was lunch and...
Mgr: So, did you complete the task?
Dev: No.
In this case, the manager needed a simple yes or no answer. They may have followed up by asking for a reason or may have simply accepted it and moved on. In this case, however, the developer didn’t deliver the information in a timely manner.
Communication Tools
Communication tools include:
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Email (Outlook, Gmail)
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Chat/messenger tools (Teams, Slack)
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Work Item Tracking tools (Jira, Azure DevOps)
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Documentation/Wikis (Sharepoint, Confluence, README)
Both tool sets allow for asynchronous communication which can minimize distractions and let people respond when available. With async communication, however, each person has to take responsibility to respond in a relatively timely manner to messages to avoid blocking other people who are waiting for input.
Acknowledgement of Messages
Often, we may not have meaningful input to a question or topic of conversation that’s raised in Teams. However, respect for the person who raised the question requires an acknowledgement. A simple thumbs up reaction or a statement of “I’ve got no opinion” is sufficient.
Work Items
“If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen!”
All discussions around work items should be documented on the work item. Jira, and other tools, provide a conversation/discussion feature that allows for discussion. This feature should be utilized extensively. Sidebar discussions should be avoided in favor of conversations on the work item.
When asking a question or addressing a comment to a person, “@” them at the start of the comment. If other people would be interested in the comment but their response is not required, preface their names with CC:.
Examples
“@Bob Jones, do you have any preference on whether the text goes above or below the text box?
Cc: @Mary Smith, @Priya Kapoor”
In this case, Bob’s input is being asked for directly but Mary and Priya are being included in the conversation and can offer their own input but no action is directly required on their parts.
“@Bob Jones @Priay Kapoor @Mary Smith, I have updated acceptance criteria to reflect that all text must go above the text boxes.”
In this case, the commenter is updating all three people and they have an opportunity to respond if they feel the need.