I work at a very email-centric environment and worked under the best CTO I’ve ever had the pleasure to work under. One of his emails he sent out is a great template to follow when writing emails. I wanted to share the email template.
1. Format email responses that consistently repeat the following:
- What is the problem?
- What are the steps that will be taken to identify the fix?
- Who owns driving those steps?
- When will those steps be taken and results published?
2. The above email should be sent daily until the issue is resolved
- A day in SRS time is a week for another company
The second item is clarity of communication. When we are sending an email that contains release notes, UAT notes/plans, crisis management steps (i.e. what was mentioned above), etc. we need to make sure we are explaining things in layman terms. Describe the situation like you would to a family member who doesn’t work at the company. Someone you care about. This may sound silly, but it’s not. Terms engineering uses are not universal and are thus a foreign language to others in the company. Please communicate briefly, but clearly using words that are more likely to appear in Webster’s dictionary than in the wiki.
