How often do you communicate with your co-workers? If the answer is often then you are on the right way.
When we are talking about communication at work, we should remember, that for some professions it is highly important, while for others not that much.
According to Agile methodology, developers should have 2-week cycles on code development. The same is true for communication on big projects. Developers should try to have a major touch every 2 weeks. That includes the status they have on all of their projects and everything.
The purpose of communication is to demonstrate knowledge of purpose, to show focus, and to demonstrate results. Here are the major forms of communication.
A high-level design communicates that you know what you were entrusted to deliver. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I am comfortable with rough sketches of a good data model, detailed key use cases, and interfaces to 3rd party software.
A development plan shows plausibly that you understand the steps required to deliver.
Regular status updates are good because they demonstrate focus. Managers do not care if you have worked on this or that. They care about what you have delivered. From a developer’s point of view, a good time to deliver a status report is when you commit code to source code control. Of course, you need good comments to show that you are delivering according to the plan. It is also a natural time to deliver because it represents an end to a “flow” or a period of being “in the zone”.
Flagging roadblocks is crucial because it demonstrates both knowledge of the purpose and focuses. A good manager will help you resolve these, but (s)he has to know about them.
Dealing with bugs is a particularly sensitive time because a bug represents a breakdown of trust. After all, in your manager’s mind, you didn’t deliver what you said you would. Being extra-communicative here is very important.
A great developer quickly reports important findings. When you start a task, acknowledge it—especially the important ones. Communicate that you are working on it. This could be as simple as marking a ticket In Progress. It could be sending an email response stating you have received the request for assistance and are investigating it. (Maxwell, 2021)
Developers do not be afraid to speak up, as the right communication with your team lead or colleagues is vital for saving your time and energy. Over time, good communication will build up good trust, and ultimately, the quality and quantity of your work will determine your trust.
Reference:
Maxwell, J. (2021). The Art of E-commerce Debugging. SwiftOtter, Inc.
