Communication Guide

Improvements? Suggestions? email dna@holaspark.com

Consistent

Be consistent with the style of communication you receive from veterans in the company. Why?

Text

Email

Effective handling

We adopted several email guidelines from Eric Schmidt's 9 rules for emailing: Why?

Why effective email is important?

We minimize the amount of tools used at Spark. Email serves as bug tracking tool, assignment management tool and as various other tools.
Bug tracking:

What seems to be the problem? On 19-Mar-16 08:35 AM, Uzi wrote: | On the CVS Search, when clicking on the changeset hyperlink - there | is a problem.
Fixed On 19-Mar-16 08:35 AM, Uzi wrote: | On the CVS Search, when clicking on the changeset hyperlink of any | diff - you get an error message. Please fix.

Task Assignment:

Let's brainstorm about it tomorrow On 22-Mar-2016 11:22 AM Eli wrote | What can we do about people not attaching tiny screenshot of their work?
Will be completed by this evening. On 22-Mar-2016 11:22 AM Eli wrote | Please add the tiny screenshot section to the DNA html.
  • Respond quickly
  • When writing an email, every word matters, and useless prose doesn't
  • Clean out your inbox constantly
  • Handle email in LIFO order (Last In First Out)
  • When you get a note with useful information, consider who else would find it useful
  • When you use the Bcc (blind copy) feature, ask yourself why
  • Make it easy to follow up on requests. When you send a note to someone with an action item that you want to track, copy yourself, then label the note "follow up."
  • Help your future self search for stuff. Forward yourself emails along with a few keywords that describe its content

Manage your inbox

Email responsiveness and never loosing an email (forgetting to respond) is critical for efficient and reliable email communication with our peers.

Respond quickly

Respond quickly to email. Many times a day check your inbox, and handle the 'tiny' emails immediately. Handle the new email in LIFO order: this improves responsiveness - one 'heavy' email will not block responding to 20 'tiny' emails coming after it. Also if there are many emails on the same subject (email chain), its easier to read them from the end-backwards.

Empty out your inbox

Why?

Empty out your inbox constantly: never end your day with more than 10 emails in your inbox.
What if you have 'heavy' email - email that requires a lot of work (e.g. writing a complex module), or cannot be handled immediately (e.g. switching hosting provider next month)? Move it to long-term task queues, such as version plan or your calendar. In such cases email the requestor the target date you planned for completing this task, and when that date arrives - send a completion email (or a postponing email, if you decided you would like to postpone).

Why keep the inbox empty?
Why not use colors/unread?

Managing the inbox by colors and by read vs. unread messages is error prone.
In such an inbox it is sometimes hard to see what was dealt with, what is more important and what can be completely discarded.

Re: Following out talk from today, please suggest a new Ziv Perry 22-Mar-2016 9:22
Re: "jwplayer bw saving": is this section in your VP Arik Gilad 21-Mar-2016 6:22
"Following out talk from today, please suggest a new" Derry Shribman 21-Mar-2016 20:46
Re: loader show data progress: done Boyang Wang 21-Mar-2016 13:44
Re: CVS Search -> CVS Diff -> changeset hyperlink doe Nir Borenshtein 21-Mar-2016 10:36
Re: CVS Search -> CVS Diff -> changeset hyperlink doe Nir Borenshtein 21-Mar-2016 10:30
Re: Spark support for chromeOS Derry Shribman 20-Mar-2016 16:24
Re: Spark support for chromeOS Moshe Belostotsky 20-Mar-2016 16:19
Fwd: Re: Fwd: ready for commit: loader Boyang Wang 20-Mar-2016 15:15

Emptying the inbox leaving only items to be dealt with makes things easy

"Following out talk from today, please suggest a new" Derry Shribman 21-Mar-2016 20:46
Re: "jwplayer bw saving": is this section in your VP Arik Gilad 21-Mar-2016 6:22
Re: Rapid increment - email part Nir Borenshtein 16-Mar-2016 14:18

Archive. Don't rely on 'read' status

Move emails from inbox to Archive (or Trash) after handling. Don't rely on 'read' status (or any other tags or labels) to mark which email you handled and which not. GMail and Thunderbird have a 1-click "Send+Archive" button to make this easy.
Why? Every time we investigate the root cause of email loss (someone missing out an email - forgetting to respond on it), we found the cause was relying on the 'read' status or some label inside the inbox as an indicator for handled email.

Archive. Don't sort.

Don't sort mail into folders for easing later lookups and searchs. Just click Archive - so it all goes into one large Archive folder. Just like in GMail: archive all handled email to Archive folder, and if-and-when you need to lookup an email, use the powerful search capability.

No filters

Instead of filtering incoming email, just remove yourself from notifications that are not relevant to you. If you don't know how to un-subscribe from a certain system, ask the IT team to un-subscribe you.

Online. No local folders

Email must all be online, available from all devices. Therefore never use local storage folders - which are offline and not available from all devices.

Minimal

Be minimal: shorter emails, less emails, and prevent email threads by writing better emails.

No styling - pure plain text

Do not send 'rich' HTML emails: no fonts, no colors, no bold/italic/underlines. Nothing. Just plain text (attachments are ok).
Styling makes the emails easily corrupt and un-viewable on different email clients, and also shift the focus from content to presentation. At Spark we try to focus purly on content and value.

Minimal recipients

Before sending an email, go through the To and Cc, validate minimal list of people in To (best if only one person with the action item), and minimal people in Cc.
If it is a reply, rethink before sending: do all these people have to be included?
Just about to send a mass email out to an 'all' mailing list? Think again; can you avoid it by sending to only specific people?. Is the info really needed by everyone? Perhaps you can provide the info 'on-demand' by putting comments in code, explanations in web pages where relevant, or adding info to a howto.

Single To

Generally avoid sending an email with more than one person in To. If the email contains action items for multiple people (and thus multiple people in To) - then clearly mark on every AI who is the relevant person who needs to act/respond on that item.

Subject filter

If the email is not relevant to all, but you don't know exactly to who - so you cannot reduce the recipient list, add a "filter" (who should read/ignore this email) message in the Subject, or the first line of the email, before the "Hi".
Example of a filter:

Subject: Israelis only: Changes in office parking

Simplified technical English

Use only simple technical English. Avoid using "political" English. Excessive use of words, explanations that refer to the emotions and beliefs are making your arguments obscure and might turn the discussion to a long and tedious one.
This statement:

As a total we are talking about $5000 monthly.

Should be written like this:

Total earn: $5000 monthly.

These should not be written at all:

I see your point and the need of numbers, but I don't have exact numbers.
I feel we are on the right track with this activity.

Attachments summary

Whenever attaching a document (text, spreadsheet or presentation), write in the email a tiny summary. The recipient then has the choice not to open the attachment.

See attached document with site click rate results.
we are up from 30%->35% in "install" click rate. See attached.

Action items (AI)

Make discussions actionable

Briefly state what the information is, what you learn from it, and what your next action will be. Don't:

According to Google Analytics, our traffic on the index.html went up 20% and so did the bounce rate.

Do:

According to Google Analytics, our traffic on the index.html went up 20% and so did the bounce rate. I will work on reducing our bounce rate. Avi: please find the root cause of the traffic increase so that we can learn how to leverage it further.

Mark & clarify action items

If the email has no AI, state that at the top (e.g. FYI). If there are AIs to only a part of the receivers, put those people in the 'To' and state at the top of the email who has the actions. If there multiple AIs or multiple AI owners, list the AIs each with the schedule and owner name.

Hi, Country selector had a bug. We reverted it. This is what we need to do to fix it today and re-release: - Natan: Fix the performance bug by this afternoon. - Moshe: Add the unit test for the country selector feature by noon. - Natan: Measure the performance after bug fix and feature are ready, by this evening - Natan Deploy feature today. Natan

Immediate action

If the action requested can be done immediately, do it and reply with a one-liner email as soon as it is completed. Send a diff URL (or attach a tiny screenshot if applicable) in order to receive immediate feedback.

From: eli To: mike Subject: Re: issue with your last commit FIXED http://web.holaspark.com/cvs/zon/pkg/www/hola/pub/dna/dict.html?r1=1.12&r2=1.13 On 12-Mar-16 08:35 AM, Mike wrote: | Hi, | | Your last commit fails the unittest. | | Mike

Delayed action

If the action requested is not to be done immediately, respond quickly with the expected time of completion and if possible with a partial solution or response.
Log the action in your version plan. Make sure to track it. If you will not be able to complete it on time send an email updating with the new expected time. Once you've completed - send an email notifying the requester

From: eli To: mike Subject: Re: Resource graph Completed and deployed. |On 13-Mar-16 14:29 PM Eli wrote: | Hi, | | I've got delayed. Expecting to finish it by noon tomorrow. | | Eli | ||On 12-Mar-16 08:40 AM Eli wrote: || Hi, || || I'll finish it by tomorrow evening. || || Eli || ||On 12-Mar-16 08:35 AM, Mike wrote: ||| Hi, ||| ||| Please give priority to the resource graph. I need it urgently. ||| ||| Mike

Partial completion

If the action requested was partially completed, reply with the status and notify the requester of the full completion time. Continue the request handling the same as you would with a delayed action item.

New email

Template

Always include a Hi opening and sign your first name at the end, give meaningful subject, and concise body.

From: nir To: derry Subject: urgent! Good morning Derry! Could it be that there was a problem in your commit that somehow caused memory to increased on zs-main server group? You are welcome to come and discuss. Best regards, Nir Sagiv R&D, Spark Mobile +972-54-5551212 Skype: nirsagiv Hangouts: nir.sagiv@gmail.com
From: nir To: derry Subject: Reverted your commit due to CRIT zs-main.mem_usage Hi, Please see what caused it, fix, and re-commit. If this commit was not the cause, please find what was the cause. Nir

Informative clear subject

Give an informative, short and concise subject to the email.
The subject should briefly describe the contents of the email. If the email is a little long, use the first line to explain it in one sentence. Never send an email without a subject. If you received an email with a bad or missing subject, modify the subject when you respond.

Subject:
Subject: URGENT!
Subject: Improving the install flow
Subject: Reverted your commit due to CRIT zs-main.mem_usage

If it might not relate to all people, explain in the subject or first line who should not read it.

Tiny Greeting

Always include a Hi opening, and a spacing line after it. Why so short? Minimalism. Why always include a greeting? in long email threads the greeting/signature are used as begin/end markers to know where each email begins and ends, and who wrote what.

Good morning,
How are you doing?
Hello,
hi,
Hi,

If the email has more than one person on To, but you want major attention from one of the people out of the To list, you can add his name in the greeting.

Derry,
Hi Derry,

Tiny one line emails

If your whole email content can fit one line, then just send it in the Subject, with and empty body.

From: nir To: derry Subject: I will be on vacation tomorrow Hi Derry, I will be on vacation tomorrow. Nir
From: nir To: derry Subject: I will be on vacation tomorrow

If you have 1 line of content, you can skip the Hi greeting.

From: nir To: derry Subject: I will be on vacation tomorrow Hi Derry, I will be back in the office on Sunday morning. Available on phone+email. Nir
From: nir To: derry Subject: I will be on vacation tomorrow I will be back in the office on Sunday morning. Available on phone+email.

Simple lists

Use '-' by default for bullets. Don't number bullets unless you specifically refer to them.

Hi, Here are the files I've modified: 1. dna.html 2. email.html 3. dict.html Haim

If the bullets are "status report" of tasks, use the style defined for version plan.

Hi, I've almost completed the task. I've completed: - API changes to the module - Database functionality changes I've still got to do: - GUI enhancement Jim
Hi, Here is what I've captured from the call with the customer: - They would like to start the trial next week - They currently do not require any changes - If the trial is successful - they plan to deploy in two months Benny

Subject only email

When possible to compose a clear email without a body - do it.

From: joe To: jake Subject: Vacation Hi, I'll be taking tomorrow off. Joe
From: joe To: jake Subject: I'll be taking tomorrow off

Signature

Short emails are much appreciated. Long multi-line HTML signature, with fonts and lots of info and links just make email threads overly long and hard to read.

Short signature

Just your personal name. Nothing else!
Use this for 99% of your emails: all internal communications, and external communications which are 2nd and onwards email with that customer, such as in replies to email threads.

Best regards, Nir
Nir

Long signature - avoid it!

Try to avoid it. In any case, never use long signatures in internal emails.
Use long signatures when this is your first communications with an external contact, since we try to give direct personal contact details to external people we communicate with (such as phone, IM...). For repeating communications with the same external contact, switch to the short signature.
Create your long signature using the signature designer. This validates it matches our well-defined format of one single long line.

Nir Sagiv | R&D, Spark | +972-54-5551212 | Skype: nirsagiv | Hangouts: nir.sagiv@gmail.com

External template

External emails may have a little more relaxed greeting: you may replace Hi with Hi Brad. You may also decide to insert your Long signature instead of the short signature. We recommend to normally use the long signature in the initial communication with that recipient, and later on move to short signatures for same recipient. Be personal: If further vocal communication needed, give them your personal mobile number/Skype/hangouts/etc so that they can contact you directly.

From: nir To: brad@out-there.com Subject: reduce json config size Hi Brad, ... ... Regards, Nir -- Nir Sagiv | R&D, Spark | +972-54-5551212 | Skype: nirsagiv | Hangouts: nir.sagiv@gmail.com

Action required email template

Email subject should contain "ACTION REQUIRED:" in capital letters.
Email should contain defined steps to achieve the action.
Email should contain a deadline to complete the action.

From: ran To: all Subject: ACTION REQUIRED: changing your password Hi, Please change your password on your PC/Laptop and virtual machine once receiving this email, and no later than 18:00 today. Notify me/Derry immediately if you encounter any password related issues. - open up cygwin - type the following: $ net user $USERNAME <password> - execute the following and provide the new password for any password request: $ cvs login Ran

Incident report email template

Email subject should clearly summarize the incident.
Email should contain a full timeline of relevant events.
Email should state the full impact of the incident (servers/customers/downtime).
Email should identify all the problems that lead to the incident, and suggested solutions.

From: josh To: nir Subject: Incident report: summary of incident Hi, Short summary describing what happened at a high level, what actions were taken, and the current status of the issue. Timeline UTC (2019-05-19): - 12:47:51 - commit - 13:15:34 - servers released - 13:27:23 - noticed problems - 13:29:56 - checking dashboard - 13:39:00 - ask for rollback - 13:49:23 - rollback done - total outage: 34m Affected customers: ... AIs: list of remaining problems if the issue is not fully resolved Suggestions for improvements: - Detail all the ways this could have been prevented this from happening. - Any other improvements to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Josh

Replies

Untouched original

Leave the original message untouched, at the end of the email, after your signature. If this reply turns into an email thread, everyone will have full information. Make sure you are using Reply All keeping everybody in the loop.

From: nir To: derry Subject: reduce json config size Hi, ... ... Nir On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | Hi, | | What are the files you have modified? | ... | ... | | Derry

Email reply quotation

When you use quotation in reply to emails, leave a line between the quotation and your answer (Why?). When answering a question: feel free to minimize or rephrase the quotation to focus and improve clarity.

Why one line between quotation and answer is important?

We keep one line space between quotation and answer in order to prevent mixing between the two when viewed in a small window.

BAD example of NOT leaving en empty line between the quote and your answer:

From: mohammad To: derry Subject: Re: email responses Hi, | I looked at the commit log. What are the files | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will I modified all of the files related to email quotation. | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will | this happen? In the next 30 minutes. I will update you once released. Mohammad On 16-Dec-15 05:15 PM, Derry wrote: | Hi, | | I looked at the commit log. What are the files | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will | this happen? | | Derry

BAD example of putting your name before your answer:

From: mohammad To: derry Subject: Re: email responses Hi, | I looked at the commit log. What are the files | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will [mohammad]: I modified all of the files related to email quotation. | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will | this happen? [mohammad]: In the next 30 minutes. I will update you once released. Mohammad On 16-Dec-15 05:15 PM, Derry wrote: | Hi, | | I looked at the commit log. What are the files | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will | this happen? | | Derry

GOOD example of how quote and answer should look like. A quote then empty line, then your answer:

From: mohammad To: derry Subject: Re: email responses Hi, | What files have you modified? I modified all of the files related to email quotation. | When will you release them? In the next 30 minutes. I will update you once released. Mohammad On 16-Dec-15 05:15 PM, Derry wrote: | Hi, | | I looked at the commit log. What are the files | you have modified? I think its urgent to release them. When will | this happen? | | Derry

Answering questions

When you have received several questions on an email, give an answer to all of them. Answer each question separately - quoting the original question.

From: itzik To: natan Subject: Re: MP changes Hi, I added AVI streaming capability. Already deployed. Itzik On 14-Mar-16 06:12 PM, Natan wrote: | Hi, | | What were the changes you've made to the MP? Did you test it for | performance? When will it be deployed? | | Natan
From: itzik To: natan Subject: Re: MP Changes Hi, | What were the MP changes? I've added AVI streaming capability. | Did you test for performance? Yes, the results were as expected. | When will it be deployed? Already deployed. itzik On 14-Mar-16 06:12 PM, Natan wrote: | Hi, | | What were the changes you've made to the MP? Did you test it for | performance? When will it be deployed? | | Natan

Referencing

When referencing previous items from the current or from a different email thread, quote the original item to spare the recipients the search for that item.

From: efi To: yossi Subject: Answer to the customer Hi, With regards to Dhinakarraj's question: | When will Spark be able to provide the lower latency feature? We will be able to provide this two days from now. Efi

One line replies

Single line emails do not require Hi and signature.

From: nir To: derry Subject: Re: reduce json config size Task was assigned to vladimir. On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | ... | ...

DONE replies

We usually using such replies to tasks we received, done/fixed/implemented and deployed.

From: nir To: derry Subject: Re: reduce json config size Done On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | ... | ...
From: nir To: derry Subject: Re: mdoc build is broken Fixed ... orig email ...
From: nir To: derry Subject: Re: reduce json config size DONE On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | ... | ...
Subject: RE: mdoc build is broken FIXED http://web.holaspark.com/cvs/zon/pkg/svc/mdoc/pub/deploy/www_cdn_b.html?r1=1.28&r2=1.29 ... orig email ...

Added to VP replies

Sometimes, you cannot act immediately.
In such cases log it in your version plan and provide a tentative optimistic quick 10 seconds estimation, when will you handle it and when it will be DONE.

From: natan To: nir Subject: Re: change in DNA email Added to VP. Will start next Sun, and finish by Mon. On 15-Nov-16 10:15 AM, Nir wrote: | ... | ...

Why replies

Once getting a 'why' email you need first to understand whether it was a mistake or not - this is the first step to take a productive action, and it should be the first line in your reply. e.g. NOT A MISTAKE or MISTAKE.
In case you think it was not a mistake, explain why makes you think this way - provide facts and data. In case you understood it was a mistake, explain how you are going to fix it as well as prevent others from doing the same.

From: nir To: natan Subject: Re: No personal greeting Hi, The demo video was prepared just before deciding on adding a personal greeting. Adding a personal greeting now to be added to the video for next times. Nir On 15-Nov-16 10:15 AM, Nir wrote: | Hi | | Please explain why you sent email to T1 customer without personal greeting? | | Natan
From: nir To: natan Subject: Re: No personal greeting Hi, MISTAKE. I did not understand correctly what "highly personalized content" really means, and choose to use an old video, without a personal greeting. I added a personal greeting to this video as well as to all other existing T1 videos I prepared in the past. I've talked to all the leadgens that deal with T1 customers and told them my mistake asking them to fix all their existing videos as well. BTW, the new record video procedure already contains instructions to record a personal greeting so it won't happen with new recorded videos. Nir On 15-Nov-16 10:15 AM, Nir wrote: | Hi | | Please explain why you sent email to T1 customer without personal greeting? | | Natan

Reply for feedback

When you've received an action item and you're email reporting on its completion or progress, attach a visual aid to receive immediate feedback on the result.

  • When reporting on completion or progress of a GUI change, create a tiny screenshot or animated GIF of the result, highlight your modifications (if needed) and attach it to your response.
  • When reporting on completion of code modification - send a diff URL of this code.

This will minimize the iterations and will speedup process.

From: mike To: derry Hi, Attached is the screenshot of the change. Requested to release it now. Mike On 15-Mar-16 2:12 AM, Derry wrote: | Hi, | | See how in /dashboard the 'contents' is very close to the navbar. | Please also make the BAT pages that the content is much closer to the | navbar. In the main page also make the table much closer to the filters. | | Derry

Choose specific wording and provid ETAs for tasks you do rather than using vague time frame.

I'm investigating it now and will report back soon.

"Soon" is hard to work with. We give ETAs, and later update if we are not delivering on time to advise of the new ETA.

I'm investigating it now and will report back on 17:00.

To vs. Cc recipients

If the email is mainly to one person, but there is AIs for other, anyone with AI must be on the To list (never Cc). In such a case add to the Hi the name of the main recipient.

From: derry To: avi, or Cc: nir Subject: Re: comments from my un-install / re-install of Spark Hi Avi, (Or - one AI for you too) Overall the new installation is very smooth. Nice work. ... ...

Adding people to the discussion

In case you would like to add more people to the discussion (email thread), use 'Reply All' and add them to the Cc or To as well as notify everybody on their addition.

From: nir To: derry Cc: romank Subject: Re: reduce json config size +romank On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | ... | ...

Or answering, while adding to the discussion:

From: nir To: derry Cc: romank Subject: Re: reduce json config size Hi, (+romank) ... ... Nir On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | ... | ...

Removing people from the discussion

If you would like to remove non-relevant people from the discussion, use 'Reply All' and remove them from Cc. Then add to the email that they were removed.

From: nir To: derry Subject: Re: reduce json config size Hi, (-romank) ... ... Nir On 02-Nov-15 10:15 AM, Derry wrote: | ... | ...

Instant messaging

IM is an interactive way to communicate remotely. You need to respond fast and be precise and specific to allow a fast flow of conversation.

Fast response

Respond fast, like you are talking f2f to your peer. Remember he cannot see you, so any other reaction but text message is not acceptable.
So, possible reactions to several scenarios:

  • Do not know the answer to a question, text "do not know"
  • Need some time to look for an answer, text "looking"
  • Need to search the Internet to bring some data, text "searching"
  • Got a task and you are going to do it, text "ok" or "added to VP"

Meaningful and actionable

Don't just say 'hi' as first message. Say what you want!

me: Hi
arik: Hi - what do you want?
me: Can you check broken link on BAT?
me: Hi - can you check broken link on BAT?
arik: checking

Short text

Minimize your text to include only relevant data. Be accurate and clear.

me: Hi Arik, r u there?
arik: what's wrong?
me: batlinux642
arik: what happened?
me: batlinux642 is broken. did you break it?
me: batlinux642 is broken. did you break it?
arik: checking
arik: yes it's me. fixing it in 2 min.
arik: I need you to do some testing
arik: It is blocking me
me: few minutes
arik: I need you to do some testing
arik: It is blocking me
me: talking to roman, few minutes

Identify yourself

We are using different messaging tools that cover our identity, e.g using WhatsApp from an on-call phone, using single Skype account by several people etc. Since we're working p2p it is important to identify yourself.

deploy: batlinux642 is broken. did you break it?
arik: who is it?
deploy: nir
arik: checking
arik: yes it's me. fixing it in 2 min.
deploy: it's nir. batlinux642 is broken. did you break it?
arik: checking
arik: yes it's me. fixing it in 2 min.
arik: fixed

Notifications

Set your skype 'mood' according to your current status. This way, it will be easier for your peers to know if you are available.

Update with an away status

Away till 16:00

Update that you are on a vacation

Vacation till 29-Aug-2016

Update that you are at lunch

At lunch

Update if you are working from home

WFH

Tasks

Being productive remotely (alone, no one sitting next to you) is much harder than in the office (together with your peers). Due to this, very few companies work completely distributed, where every developer is in his home, in a different city and country. To be able to succeed in being productive, in spite remoteness, requires meticulous communications of tasks, during the complete task life span.
You have a small question? You cannot just turn around and ask your peer a question (... which happens to also be your office-mate) - your peer may be 10 timezones away from you. So you must reduce round-trips, increase transparency by sending many regular updates, and be quick on feedback.

Heads up

Planning on starting a new task? Try to think who may be relevant/interested, and email them a heads up about the task, and when you plan to actually start working on it, and when you plan to complete it.

Delays and cancellation

You told you will do something and you decided to delay the start of the task or you decided to cancel? email the relevant people on this change.

Started working on it

Email relevant people that you started, and your updated estimation of when you plan to complete.

Incremental/partial results

You have something basically working - email a screenshot! Offer people to connect up with screen-sharing and play around with it. Even before its fully written, passes unit-tests, ready for commit... You will receive feedback eariler this way.

Completed

Once the task is completed and deployed, email relevant peers send some screenshots, link to commit, the URL they can see this feature and play around with it.

Wording

Use simplified technical english, not 'political english'.

Keywords

URGENT

Should normally be 1st word in subject, for things that require an action that same day. Typically we also call the person up directly on phone/im.

Subject: There is an URGENT problem with stats
Subject: URGENT: stats not working - needs to be fixed now

AI (action item)

See the AI section for examples.

ACTION REQUIRED

When there is a tiny specific & immediate action that needs to be done.

Subject: Please change your passwords today
Subject: ACTION REQUIRED: change today your passwords
Subject: You wont be able to build the tree unless you update VM
Subject: ACTION REQUIRED: run 'zupdate' to update your VM (tree build change)
Subject: There is a new parking RFID sticker. You can come to me to get it.
Subject: ACTION REQUIRED: There is a new parking RFID - come to me to get it

DONE

Normally as a response to an action item email. Can be used as a single word response.

Subject: RE: improve flow of install DONE ... orig email ...

FIXED

Similar to DONE, but refers to a problem that was fixed.

Subject: RE: mdoc build is broken FIXED http://web.holaspark.com/cvs/zon/pkg/svc/mdoc/pub/deploy/www_cdn_b.html?r1=1.28&r2=1.29 ... orig email ...

FYI (for your information)

Informs the recipients that this email (or a section of it) is not critical, and nothing 'bad' will happen if they will skip it/ignore it/read it later. This helps the recipient to prioritize his inbox.

Date format

Use only or DD-Mmm-YYYY (or DD-Mmm-YY), or just DD-Mmm to keep it short.
This format is clearly understood by all, regardless of locale.

15/1/16 2016-15-01 15-Jan 15-Jan-16 15-Jan-2016

Time format

Never use AM/PM.

9:30pm IST 21:30 IST

Always 2 digits for hours.

9:30 IST 09:30 IST

Timezones: Technical (commits, releases, deploy, server events...) - UTC

12:30 12:30 UTC

Timezones: Human (meetings...) - Local time of the person you are communicating with.

12:30 12:30 IST

Grammar

Questions

Questions need to end with a question mark.

Has your team decided yet. Has your team decided yet?

Punctuation

Punctuation marks like ! ? . and , always come directly after the word and have a space or new line after it.

Has your team decided yet ? Has your team decided yet? I'll explain,shortly, about Spark I'll explain, shortly, about Spark

When & replaces a word, it should have spaces around it. Better yet, use and instead.
It is OK to use & in company names like AT&T or common short forms like R&D, but most communcation should use and.

I'm free today&tomorrow. I'm free today & tomorrow. I'm free today and tomorrow. We will need a day of R&D to make it work.

Capitalization

Capitalize the beginning word of a sentence.

we will handle it soon. We will handle it soon.

Capitalize proper nouns (like the names of people, places, companies, holidays).

I will touch base with nir after christmas. I will touch base with Nir after Christmas. I have a call scheduled on Tuesday

Don't capitalize yesterday, today, or tomorrow unless they come at the beginning of a sentence.

We'll talk Tomorrow We'll talk tomorrow

If you're not sure whether to capitalize or not, don't. An incorrect capital looks worse than an incorrect lowercase.

Short forms

Only use short forms if it is common and the original word is long. Often short forms are hard to understand.

We'll talk tmrw. We'll talk tomorrow. It will take approx. 2 days. It will take approx 2 days. It will take approximately 2 days.

Never replace a word with a number or a letter.

I'll send it 2 u. I'll send it to you.