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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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Quick Poll
3
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
E-mail Inflow Is Overwhelming
4
No time to read all e-mails
THOROUGHLY
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Implications
5
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
How to Manage Not Answered E-mails
6
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Responding to Blaming Messages
7
1.Acknowledge the problem
2.Alleviate the situation
3.Describe the prevention plan
Main hint! Do not hurry. Have a break then respond.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Usual Newcomer’s Inbox
8
® 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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Spell Checking Did Not Help
11
Date FormatMM/DD/YYYY
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Recipients: To, CC, BCC
12
Types of recipients:
• Direct – To
• Indirect – CC
• Hidden – BCC
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Direct Recipients – To
13
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Indirect Recipients – CC
14
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Hidden Recipients – BCC
15
When and Why?
• To hide the list of recipients
• To reduce e-mail size
• Only when no replies to all are expected
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
E-mail Structure
16
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Content: Greeting
17
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Content: Body
18
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Content: Body
19
Synopsis
Action items
Details
Technical details
Attachments
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Enumerations
20
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Content: Polite Ending and Signature
21
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]
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Signature
22
Use the official e-mail signature for new e-mails.
And short signature for replies.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Attachments
23
Pay attention to:
• File names
• ZIP for archives
• Dangerous files
• Image formats
• Huge attachments
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Importance Flag
24
Simple rule:
• Low – doesn’t really matter
• Normal – first request
• High – repeated important request or urgent e-mail
Note: Sometimes low importance brings attention
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Responding to E-mails
26
Action-oriented e-mail should be responded!
Your silence breaks the conversation.
If you are not sure then contact your manager (curator).
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Answering and Quoting – Strategy
27
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Case #1. Progress Update
28
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Case #4. Reference to “Remote” Context
31
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.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Case #6. Advanced Coloring
33
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Case #9. Skill DL
36
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).
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Meeting Request
37
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Appointment
38
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Voting Buttons
39
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Follow-up Flag
40
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
E-mail Categories
41
You can specify color and name for own categories.
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Recalling E-mails
42
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Recalling E-mails – Alternative
43
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
Digital Signature and Encryption
44
Read Digital Signature and Encryption Policy
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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
® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved.
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