Practical ways to improve team communication
Published: 2023-02-05 19:42:14

Communication is understood to be a critical success factor for software projects. Still, online articles are devoted primarily to formal information flows rather than practical ways of improving communication within the team. In this article, I aim to stimulate your perspective to view commonly used tools and processes as significant assets for enhancing communication.

Before we start, let's clarify what communication is -  Communication is an **exchange of information between individuals**. Effective communication should prevent misinterpreting, assumptions and leaving people out. It fosters relationship-building, promotes the knowledge sharing, and encourages ongoing feedback within a team.

Undoubtedly, the list that follows will contain familiar elements, yet their potential as communication tools may not have been previously considered. Those are generally utilized for different objectives, but encapsulate good opportunities for amplifying team communication.


**User Stories**: By writing stories from the perspective of the user, we communicate to the team what features and functionality are most important to their users and learn the best way to achieve the expected outcome. 

**Story Point Tickets**: By discussing story points to a task, teams can better understand the amount of work that will be required to complete it. This can help teams prioritize tasks, plan their sprints, and make more accurate project timelines. Additionally, story point tickets can help teams understand the scope of a project and make better decisions about what features to include and when to release them. By having a clear understanding of what needs to be done, team members can communicate more effectively with one another.

**Jira Sprint Boards**: Jira sprint boards are a powerful communication tool. These boards provide a visual representation of what the team is working on and the team's progress. Additionally, Jira sprint boards provide a central location for team members to collaborate and communicate about the tasks and projects they are working on and who is responsible for each task. This can help team members communicate more effectively with one another and ensure that everyone is on the same page

**Code Reviews**: By having team members review the code, teams can ensure that principles and good practices are constantly communicated within the team.

**Automated tests**: Automated tests can help improve communication within a software team by clearly indicating what is tested, how to test and automatically communicate regression issues.

**Decision Record Pages**: These pages provide a central location for teams to communicate and track essential decisions that are made during a project. By having a record of these decisions, teams can ensure that everyone is aware of important decisions and understands the reasoning behind them. 

**Guidelines**: Guidelines can be used to establish expectations and protocols for how a team should perform common tasks. By having guidelines in place, team members can leverage previous experiences, which can help improve overall communication and skills within the team.

**CICD Pipeline**: CICD can be used to improve collaboration and communication between development and operations teams, as it provides a clear and consistent process for building, testing, and deploying code, which reduces the possibility of human errors. Pipelines are an excellent source of documentation.

**Application Logs**: Good application logs can be highly beneficial for software teams as they can be used to alert about issues and help improve communication. Using centralized log management tools, teams can easily access, search, aggregate, build metrics and gain insight into the performance and usage of an application, which can help teams communicate more effectively with one another and with users.

**Service contracts**: Define the interface between different teams or components of a system and specify what each component is expected to provide and consume. By having a clear and agreed-upon contract, teams can work independently and efficiently, knowing exactly what is expected of them and what they can rely on from other teams. This helps to reduce confusion, ensure compatibility, and minimize the risk of unexpected behaviors. Overall, service contracts play a crucial role in promoting effective cross-team communication.

In conclusion, it's clear that successful software development relies not only on skills and expertise, but also largely on effective communication. By viewing existing tools through the lens of communication improvement, we can harness their power more fully, resulting in streamlined interactions, increased clarity, and ultimately, improved team performance