Developer Communication - goatandsheep/goatandsheep.github.com GitHub Wiki

These are some tips that will help you better communicate with your peers:

  • Lookup the rules of assertion, such as 12 rules of assertiveness. This is an important way to understand how to respectfully get what you need.
  • If you're expected to do something and there's an issue, tell the people who assigned you the task right away that there's an issue and that you're dealing with it.
  • When you're asked to do something, make sure all the details are outlined in a transparent way such that anyone can access it at any time
  • When a team is given shared responsibility, you need to ensure other team members get their roles done or you're also liable
  • If you work in a shared office and want to ask peers a question:
    • Write down the question on paper
    • Walk to them and ask them if they're available to chat
    • If they're not, walk to your desk and e-mail them the question and your availability window
  • Different peers have different preferred methods of communication, so try multiple initially and figure out which works best, but generally people prefer more engaging methods, such as a scheduled one-on-one meeting / call
  • Think: what is a realistic goal within this week?
  • Make sure you create tickets in your issue tracker as soon as you learn about scope changes so people who depend on you can plan accordingly. For example, if you're doing UI development and designers add a feature to the mockup, don't wait to get to that topic. Write the tickets write away so back end developer know exactly what data you need
  • Bounce ideas for code changes with peers before you touch code
  • Question your draft code first thing in the morning
  • Question your team's approach even if it makes you look dumb but do it early on and make space to re-evaluate plans later
  • If it's hard to get help from a team member, don't be afraid to approach your manager
  • When writing tickets, explain the context / problems you're solving / reason for creating the ticket
  • Do not take manager gaslighting personally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-cgczxGHM