E-mail Communication: How and Why

Delivering Excellence in Software Engineering

® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.

E-mail Communication: How and Why(miniq version)

by Alexander Kediarov

® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved. 2

QuestionsQuestions7

Advanced Topics Advanced Topics 6

E-mail PatternsE-mail Patterns5

Responding to E-mailsResponding to E-mails4

E-mail Composition BasicsE-mail Composition Basics3

Handling Incoming E-mailsHandling Incoming E-mails2

IntroductionIntroduction1


Quick Poll

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How many e-mails do you receive daily?1.Up to 202.20 – 403.41 – 1004.100+

How many do you send daily?1.Up to 32.4 – 103.10 – 204.20+

Approximate position:1.Juniors and specialist.2.Senior specialist and team leads.3.Managers.4.Top managers.


E-mail Inflow Is Overwhelming

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No time to read all e-mails

THOROUGHLY


Implications

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E-mails should be:

1. Easy to read and understand

2. Easy to answer and make decision

3. Sent in a timely manner

4. Polite and friendly

5. Aimed at resolving client’s problems instead of creating new ones


How to Manage Not Answered E-mails

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How to react if you do not get response to your e-mail?

1. Most likely your recipient is too busy now

2. “3 Nails” principle

3. Be polite. Write in constructive way to continue communication

4. Ask you team lead or PM for assistance

Could you please comment the e-mail below?

Did you have a chance to review my e-mail?

In order to proceed with this task we need your assistance. Please advise.


Responding to Blaming Messages

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1.Acknowledge the problem

2.Alleviate the situation

3.Describe the prevention plan

Main hint! Do not hurry. Have a break then respond.


Usual Newcomer’s Inbox

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® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved. 9

QuestionsQuestions7

Advanced Topics Advanced Topics 6

E-mail PatternsE-mail Patterns5

Responding to E-mailsResponding to E-mails4

E-mail Composition BasicsE-mail Composition Basics3

Handling Incoming E-mailsHandling Incoming E-mails2

IntroductionIntroduction1


Subject – Quick Check

<No subject>

Vacation request (4/30/10)

Very long subject which tries to explain everything in the e-mail and which is truncated due to its length

New Bug

Left for Vacation [Alexander Kediarov Apr 17, 2010 09:00 AM - Apr 17, 2010 12:00 PM]

MxExpress Admin Tool (Smoke Test on Virtualized server) Test Results

SIN: [Alert] possible problems with access on epbyminvsd0312

Question10


Spell Checking Did Not Help

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Date FormatMM/DD/YYYY


Recipients: To, CC, BCC

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Types of recipients:

• Direct – To

• Indirect – CC

• Hidden – BCC


Direct Recipients – To

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Some actions are expected from people in To. They are supposed to reply.

Exceptions:

1. E-mail is addressed to a distribution list (DL).

2. A lot of people in To and no direct action items.

3. There are some notes like “FYI” or it’s a follow up.


Indirect Recipients – CC

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E-mail is sent to inform people. For example:

1. Project manager or project DL

2. Direct manager (if no answer after first e-mail)

3. Mentioned person Recommendations:

1. No need to reply unless you have something important to say

2. If you are in CC do not reply before people in To. Wait some time


Hidden Recipients – BCC

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When and Why?

• To hide the list of recipients

• To reduce e-mail size

• Only when no replies to all are expected


E-mail Structure

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1.Greeting

2.Body:

3.Polite ending

4.Signature

Looking forward to hearing from you.Waiting for your response.Thank you in advance.

Thanks,Best regards,Regards,Yours faithfully,

Hi,Hello,Alex,Colleagues,

Folks,Hi All,

“I have written you a long letter because I did not have time to write a short one”

Blaise Pascal,Mathematician, Theologist, 1623-1662


Content: Greeting

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Always start your e-mail with greeting.

Hello Alex,Hi Alex,Alex,

Ramgopal Paripati – RamBalazs Fejes1 – FBTerrance Tripp – DanArkadiy Dobkin – ArkVenkatanarayanan Krishnamoorthy - Venkat

Greeting should be consistent with the list of recipients in “To”.Use the name from signature.


Content: Body

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Content: Body

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Synopsis

Action items

Details

Technical details

Attachments


Enumerations

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Advantages of enumerations:• Easy to reference• Easy to track

Different types:• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5• A, B, C, D• 1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3• a, b, c, d• Q1, A1, Q2, A2, Q3• Continuous enumeration

Separate enumerations for:• Assumptions, Development dependencies,

QA dependencies, Estimation dependencies


Content: Polite Ending and Signature

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Looking forward to hearing from you.Waiting for your response.Thank you in advance.

Thanks,Best regards,Regards,Yours faithfully,

Best Regards,Alexander KediarovSenior Software Maintenance Manager

EPAM SystemsMinsk office, Belarus (GMT+2)

Office phone: +375 (17) 210-1662Office fax: +375 (17) 210-1168Mobile phone: +375 (29) 661-2935E-mail: [email protected]

Alexander KediarovThomson Reuters Phone: +375 17 389 0100 [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Signature

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Use the official e-mail signature for new e-mails.

And short signature for replies.


Attachments

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Pay attention to:

• File names

• ZIP for archives

• Dangerous files

• Image formats

• Huge attachments


Importance Flag

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Simple rule:

• Low – doesn’t really matter

• Normal – first request

• High – repeated important request or urgent e-mail

Note: Sometimes low importance brings attention


Action-Oriented E-mail – Quick Check

Would you reply if…?You got new task.

You are in CC and have nothing new to say.

E-mail is addressed to a distribution list (DL).

A lot of people in To and there are no direct action items for you.

A lot of people in To and you are not sure what steps are expected from you.

There are some notes like “FYI”.

It’s a meeting follow-up and everything is correct.

25


Responding to E-mails

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Action-oriented e-mail should be responded!

Your silence breaks the conversation.

If you are not sure then contact your manager (curator).


Answering and Quoting – Strategy

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1.Reply to All.Possible exceptions:– Personal “Thanks”– Internal discussion

excluding customers– Confidential information– E-mail to DL (sometimes)

2.Respond to all questions or action items.


Case #1. Progress Update

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Hi,

We are still investigating the issue. The following steps were done:1. IIS logs analyzed. No issues found.2. Files compared on different servers

in cluster. They are in synch.3. User permissions were checked.

Nothing special.

We will continue the investigation tomorrow. Additional logging will be implemented.

The next status update will be sent by the end of the week.

Best regards,Alexander Kediarov

Accomplishments

Next Steps

Next Update


Hello,

Your request has been received by 3rd level support group.A qualified support engineer will begin the investigation as soon as possible and will update you with a status shortly, thank you for your patience.

US Support Team

Case #2. Simple Answer

29

Hi,

The change request #1234 has been implemented and released on staging. Internal QA is in progress. I will send you the test results tomorrow.

Best regards,Alexander Kediarov

Harold,

Here are my comments regarding bugs reported by client:1. Done.2. Fixed.3. Not reproducible with our test account.

Could you please provide user login and password?

4. Fixed.5. Works as designed. See requirement

Req07.

Thanks,Alexander Kediarov

1.Task acknowledgement2.Response to direct action

item3.Answering to already

enumerated questions.


When you have several topics to comments it makes sense to inline them into the original message.

Adding remarks like [AK] or [A.Kediarov] with a text.

Using a different color.

Case #3. Inline Comments

30


Case #4. Reference to “Remote” Context

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This is applicable when you need to cite documentation, requirements or some sentence from a long e-mail chain.

1.Use indentation and different color to separate the quotation.

2.Put additional comment to specify the source of the quotation.


Case #5. Addressing E-mail to Different People

32

This approach is useful when you write e-mail to several recipients and would like to set actions items.

1.Highlight names

2.Enumerate action items

3.Specify deadlines for responses


Case #6. Advanced Coloring

33


Case #7. Meeting Follow-up

Structure of MFU:

1.Participants

2.Agenda

3.Minutes (items/discussions and decisions)

4.Action List

P.S. You can find Meeting Minutes template in PAL.

34


Case #8. OOO Auto Reply

Why to set up?• Keep people informed• Avoid delays in communication

When? • Vacation• Illness• Public holidays• Trainings

The content:• Why you cannot reply (optional)• When you will be in the office• Alternative contact

Example:I'm currently on the vacation till April 25.Please contact Aliaksei Sapach instead if you need some assistance with regard to

MULTEDG project.

35


Case #9. Skill DL

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1. Question to distribution list

2. People reply directly to requestor only

3. Requestor prepares summary and sends it to DL

Note: the same rule is largely used to inquire to Nowork DLs (such as NoWork Info).


Meeting Request

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Appointment

38


Voting Buttons

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Follow-up Flag

40


E-mail Categories

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You can specify color and name for own categories.


Recalling E-mails

42


Recalling E-mails – Alternative

43


Digital Signature and Encryption

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Read Digital Signature and Encryption Policy

http://ephubudvsd0087.budapest.epam.com/pal/pal_method_plugin/guidances/whitepapers/resources/EPM-SPI_DataEncryptionandDigitalSigning.doc


Sharing Sensitive Information

You were asked to provide credentials:1.Use alternative communication channel

(Skype)2.Provide the password to the requestor only

(separate login and password)3.Reply to all that you shared the password

via Skype

45


Be Polite

46

Do it now!

Please do it.

Will you do it?

Could you please do it?

Could you please kindly do it?

Would you be so kind to do it?

I wonder if you could do it?

Delivering Excellence in Software Engineering


E-mail Communication: How and WhyFor more information, please contact:Alexander KediarovSenior Software Maintenance ManagerEPAM Systems, Inc.Radialnaya, 40Minsk, BelarusPhone: +375-17-389-0100 ext.1899Email: [email protected]://www.epam.com

Technology

E-mail Communication: How and Why