Intrateam communication

How team members communicate with each other daily.

Team’s tools for communication include:

• Our voices!!!

  • Primarily through voice and video calls (Teams and Slack calls - which can optionally include video and screen sharing, Slack 'huddles' - non-video calls that can include screen sharing);

  • Also recently noted that with remote working by default, alerting colleagues if we know we’re going to go into the office on any given day will help them decide whether they would like to join us (just for the novelty of face-to-face company, or for team working that would benefit from a face-to-face element).

• Slack messages. This is the team’s default communication method as it provides the option for:

  • channel broadcasting - and those channels can be large (whole TIS team, plus stakeholders), or small channels (Front end developers, Ops, Product Team);

  • channel chat - posting messages that others on the channel can see and respond to if they wish;

  • direct messaging - which can be to a single, or multiple colleagues.

• MS Teams. Similar to Slack, but HEE-wide, whereas Slack is largely limited to TIS and selected TIS stakeholders.

• Jira tickets. Jira is integrated with GitHub, so comments here on the specific subject of the tickets are useful as will be indirectly cross-referenced via GitHub too.

• PR comments. As per Jira, but in reverse! Now we’re working in multiple Product Teams, also be aware of the concept of code ownership - one team ‘owns’ a selection of GitHub repos, another team ‘owns’ others. Anyone can work on any repo, but at least one code 'owner' must approve code being altered in their repos.

• Emails. Not the most common communication channel anymore. However you can get an email address for a Slack channel, in order to forward emails to that channel - which is a really simple integration.

[remember NOT to share any password via Slack or any other medium, as it is not secure to do so. Prefer to point or be pointed towards the location where secret parameters are stored, e.g. the AWS System Manager]

App	Medium	Type of messages

App	Medium	Type of messages
Slack Open	#CHANNEL	Generic messages meant to be read by all those who’re part of the channel. Messages that may be aimed at specific members but that could benefit from being exposed to a wider audience.
	THREAD (reply to specific message)	Response to a specific message that feels like it’d spam the channel if it was posted on it. When there’s an opportunity to start a thread that pertains a topic that is focused on some defined details it’s best to take it. Any message that feels like it’d be only nuisance to other people in the channel that most likely won’t need to get involved with that issue.
	CALLS	Anything that requires people talking vocally and probably screen-sharing (charts, roadmaps, slides, code etc.). If it’s a discussion over a subject, it’s good practice to jot down a few notes and post them in the same channel shortly afterwards to let the wider team know what was said/discussed/decided on the call. In this case, consider using Teams instead and record the call A call in a channel is preferred to a call between single individuals if there’s a chance anyone wandering into the call might provide helpful insight. Ceremonies (standup, retro etc.) should not happen on Slack, but on MS Teams.
	DMs	Anything that feels like it’d be of no interest to anyone in the channels.
MS Teams Open	CALLS	List of MS Teams calls (@deprecated link to old pinned links) Planning Standup Ticket refinement sessions Team sharings Review Retro Estimating session
Jira	TICKET COMMENTS	Anything that explores the actual implementation of the ticket’s goal Anything that would enrich the story described in the ticket and that feels valuable to immortalize for future reference (rather than having to browse through Slack messages from months back)
GitHub	COMMENTS ON PRs	Anything that needs to be addressed in a PR that is being peer reviewed.
Outlook	EMAILS	Usually for formal correspondence