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
Questions7
Advanced Topics6
E-mail Patterns5
Responding to E-mails4
E-mail Composition Basics3
Handling Incoming E-mails2
Introduction1

Quick Poll
3
How many e-mails do you
receive daily?
1. Up to 20
2. 20 – 40
3. 41 – 100
4. 100+
How many do you send
daily?
1. Up to 3
2. 4 – 10
3. 10 – 20
4. 20+
Approximate position:
1. Juniors and specialist.
2. Senior specialist and team leads.
3. Managers.
4. Top managers.

E-mail Inflow Is Overwhelming
4
No time to read
all e-mails
THOROUGHLY

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

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.

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.

Usual Newcomer’s Inbox
8

® 2010. EPAM Systems. All rights reserved. 9
Questions7
Advanced Topics6
E-mail Patterns5
Responding to E-mails4
E-mail Composition Basics3
Handling Incoming E-mails2
Introduction1

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
Question
10

Spell Checking Did Not Help
11
Date Format
MM/DD/YYYY

Recipients: To, CC, BCC
12
Types of recipients:
• Direct – To
• Indirect – CC
• Hidden – BCC

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.

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

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

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

Content: Greeting
17
Always start your e-mail
with greeting.
Hello Alex,
Hi Alex,
Alex,
Ramgopal Paripati – Ram
Balazs Fejes1 – FB
Terrance Tripp – Dan
Arkadiy Dobkin – Ark
Venkatanarayanan Krishnamoorthy - Venkat
Greeting should be consistent
with the list of recipients in “To”.
Use the name from signature.

Content: Body
18

Content: Body
19
Synopsis
Action items
Details
Technical
details
Attachments

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

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 Kediarov
Senior Software Maintenance Manager
EPAM Systems
Minsk office, Belarus (GMT+2)
Office phone: +375 (17) 210-1662
Office fax: +375 (17) 210-1168
Mobile phone: +375 (29) 661-2935
E-mail: Alexander_Kediarov@epam.com
Alexander Kediarov
Thomson Reuters
Phone: +375 17 389 0100 ext.1899
alexander.kediarov@thomsonreuters.com
thomsonreuters.com

Signature
22
Use the official e-mail signature
for new e-mails.
And short signature for replies.

Attachments
23
Pay attention to:
• File names
• ZIP for archives
• Dangerous files
• Image formats
• Huge attachments

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

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
26
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
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.

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

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 acknowledgement
2. Response to direct action item
3. 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
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.

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
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).

Meeting Request
37

Appointment
38

Voting Buttons
39

Follow-up Flag
40

E-mail Categories
41
You can specify color and name for own categories.

Recalling E-mails
42

Recalling E-mails – Alternative
43

Digital Signature and Encryption
44
Read Digital Signature and Encryption Policy

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 Why
For more information, please contact:
Alexander Kediarov
Senior Software Maintenance Manager
EPAM Systems, Inc.
Radialnaya, 40
Minsk, Belarus
Phone: +375-17-389-0100 ext.1899
Email: Alexander_Kediarov@epam.com
http://www.epam.com

E-mail Communication: How and Why

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to E-mail Communication: How and Why

Similar to E-mail Communication: How and Why (20)

More from EPAM Systems

More from EPAM Systems (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

E-mail Communication: How and Why

Editor's Notes