Every organisation has their own working culture when it comes to how work is managed and communicated on. On top of that, each project has a unique set of needs for discussion, feedback, and sign off.When working with you, there’s ‘no one size fits all’ answer to how we’ll communicate with you. Each project needs a tailored approach to comms that we should both be clear on. To help keep this clear between us here’s a list of the comms principles we follow and the tools we use. Before we start work on the project there should be a clear plan between you and the Project Manager at DEV. If you’re unsure at all, just let us know and we’ll help clarify.
Principles
- Be clear upfront on expectations so there are no surprises. If you expect a check in call twice a day, we need to know that early on! We’ll be as flexible as possible but mightn’t be able to meet all short notice requests.
- If something is really urgent please let us know and we’ll respond asap but please use your judgement on this and use sparingly.
- Respect working hours. Working culture varies team to team but we limit work for our team outside of 9-5 UK working hours.
- Respect work schedules. We will try to give you notice of all deadlines and meetings. Of course last minute things do crop up but we will work to limit those as we know you will be busy with other projects too. We ask that you do the same for us.
- Limit the people in groups. Conversations are most effective with the minimum number of people. All key stakeholders need to be included on communications but Keep comms small groups.
- Project comms need to be tailored. It’s the responsibility of everyone involved to discuss how we’ll communicate during the project ahead of time.
Tools
For project management
- The SoW: This should have a clear list of all deliverables or - if running an agile process - how the project will run. It’s there to give certainty to everyone involved so it needs to have all the detail you’ll want to see from your final project.
- Favro: This is a project management tool similar to Trello. It’s easy to use and will help us deliver the best work for you. We’ll give you an introduction to how to use it before the project starts.
- TrackDuck: This is a really handy tool that allows you to easily give us feedback on project. It captures screenshots of the exact part of the site you’re commenting on, and it grabs your browser info as well, so we’re in a good place to replicate the issue you’ve seen.
For calls
- Appear In: Our preferred system for calls which allows multiple users to join video calls by opening a link. No downloads required.
- Skype: If you prefer, we can use Skype for video calls.
- Other video conferencing systems: If you have to use a different system than either of the above, please let us know ahead of time.
- Phone: As a fallback we can always use the phone but it’s preferable to use a video conferencing system where we can see participants and do screen sharing if necessary.
For messaging
- Favro: Most project comms can be conduct through cards on Favro which offers a transparent record of conversations.
- Email: For other comms we can use email, employing CC and ‘move to BCC’ as appropriate in order to limit the people in groups as outlined above.
- SMS/WhatsApp: Outside of emergencies we ask that you don’t use SMS/WhatsApp/Skype messaging for project comms.
For meetings
- Calendars: Ensure that all participants have an invite in calendars ahead of time. If you are unsure of being able to attend, please tentatively accept the offer or make this clear in another way as we often plan travel around meetings.