Communication Principles

Listen – Too often we listen to respond. We need to listen to learn from the people we’re talking to.

Prepare – Do research to understand your client before you talk to them. This will make your communication more effective. Learn jargon, terms, etc.

Use a facilitator – especially if there is a lot of people. This allows everyone to talk, and divides tasks for developers between asking questions and taking notes. This person can also mediate issues that might arise.

Face-to-face communication is best – Humans use a lot of non-verbal communication. Having the ability to do real time communication, not having to wait hours or days for emails, letters, etc speeds up the process.

Take notes and document decisions – this way you have a track record in case disagreements come up.

Strive for collaboration – working together on small things, makes it easier to work together as a group on bigger things

Stay focused; modularize your discussion – don’t move on from one topic to the next, unless you have finished working on that topic. Each topic should be modular and stand alone on its own.

If unclear, draw a picture – language can be ambiguous. Sketching things out, makes sure everyone is on the same page. This can work for UI (user interfaces), data modeling, process flow, etc.

Know when to move on – When you agree, or can’t agree, know to move on, and return if necessary. Much better than getting stuck and making no progress.

Negotiation is not a contest – it works best when it is a win-win situation.

Communication Principles was originally found on Access 2 Learn