If there is quite a process involved in developing even simple software like scripts. Nearly all software is developed in teams because the results are better. An example of the reasons why can be found at The importance of teamwork (Atlassian - Jan 2023).
Working as a group is essential in Information Technology and most industries due to various reasons. Tasks often require a team due to their complexity or the diverse skills needed. Additionally, team collaboration brings forth multiple viewpoints, combining different experiences and perspectives. Some team members focus on the big picture while others pay attention to detail, ensuring fairness and benefiting everyone involved.
However, effective teamwork requires proper execution. Communication is crucial, with clear expectations, deadlines, and alignment of individual work with the team's objectives. Miscommunication and clashes arising from different communication styles or personalities can hinder progress and cause conflicts. It's also important to maintain focus on the project's goal, as individual agendas may divert the team's purpose and hinder success. Within a team, two key functions lead to the success or failure of the team. These are:
- Communication: Effective communication ensures that everyone understands their roles, deadlines, and how their work contributes to the team's efforts. Regular meetings facilitate open communication, allowing for knowledge sharing and leveraging diverse viewpoints to enhance the project's outcome.
- Project Management: Even when working alone, project management is vital to sequence tasks properly and address critical points that could impact the entire project. Various project management methodologies are employed in the IT field to ensure efficient planning, coordination, and successful project completion.
Communication
'Communication' transfers information from one place, person or group to another. For IT professionals, effective communication is essential.
Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient. This may sound simple, but communication is a very complex subject.
The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range of variances, including:
- our emotions
- the cultural situation
- the medium used to communicate
- our location.
This complexity is why good communication skills are considered desirable by employers worldwide: because accurate, effective and unambiguous communication can be hard.
Importance of communication
Communication brings people together, closer to each other; making it an important management function closely associated with all other managerial functions. It bridges the gap between individuals and groups through the flow of information and understanding between them.
Information is the most vital aspect of communication. It is 'information' that is transmitted, studied, analysed, interpreted and stored. The manager, therefore, has to spare time to collect, analyse and store the information for decision-making and routine, day-to-day business.
Ways to communicate and provide instructions to clients
Pay Attention to Your Tone of Voice
It is not what you say, but how you say it. Surely you have heard that phrase. If you are having an in-person or phone conversation with your client, pay attention to your tone of voice. Do you sound upbeat or bored? Happy or sad? If it is one of the latter two, you might want to change that. Even if you have to fake it ‘til you make it.
Be Friendly
Whether you have a super cheery and energetic personality or are calmer and more laid-back, what is important is that you are positive, friendly and personable. Treat your client like they are an old friend of yours.
When you talk to them on the phone, ask them how their day is going and show a genuine interest in their lives.
Say No the Right Way
Nobody likes to hear the word 'no'. Try to avoid this word in your client communication.
If you have exhausted all other alternatives and 'no' is the only option left, at least phrase the 'no' in a more positive way. For instance, if your client asks if you can complete a task by an impossible deadline, instead of saying, 'No. I’m sorry, but that won’t be possible', say something like, 'I won’t be able to complete it by that date, but I can get it back to you in X amount of time. Is that okay?'
The way that you phrase things makes a world of difference.
Practice Active Listening
A huge part of what makes a great conversationalist is someone who listens. When someone else is talking, are you taking in what they say or just thinking about what you will say next? We all tend to let our minds wander from time to time, so active listening is not as easy as it sounds.
To become a better, more active listener (and better conversationalist), start here:
- Go to a quiet place with limited distractions.
- Avoid multitasking (give the other person your full and undivided attention).
- Try not to interrupt.
- Take notes if you have to.
- When the person has finished speaking, paraphrase or summarise what was said and provide feedback.
Be Consistent
You also want to make sure that you are consistent in your messaging and how you communicate with clients. Your clients will develop certain expectations from their first interaction with you.
If you are friendly and concise at the first engagement and then stand-offish at the next, your client will inevitably be thrown off.
Think about your company's brand, image and values, as well as how you want to be portrayed. Talk to your colleagues. How do they communicate? Make sure that your team is all on the same page and that you are all similarly presenting yourselves.
Speak Their Language
Part of great communication is adapting your style to the person you speak with. If your client uses a very formal tone, respond in a formal tone. If they are more casual and playful, respond similarly.
This does not mean that you have to be an entirely different person or change the way you are, but if you want your client to feel a stronger bond, you should adapt your communication style.
Pay Attention to Formatting
When styling your emails or documents, pay close attention to the formatting. To make your message more readable, simply:
- create lists whenever possible
- use bold on important words or phrases
- use ample spacing throughout.
Be Clear and Concise
Chances are, your client is short on time. They may not have time to try to interpret an email that you send them or a long, convoluted voicemail that you leave them. So, avoid being vague.
Be as clear and specific as possible in your delivery, and be concise. 'Cut to the chase' and say what you have to say in as few words as possible.
Always Say Please and Thank You
Sometimes, it is the little things that mean the most. So, make 'please' and 'thank you' part of your vocabulary and don’t be afraid to overuse them.
Make Things Easy for Them
Value your client's time. When you are communicating with your client, you want to make things as easy as possible for them. For example, provide them with a direct link to whatever you are referencing. Before a meeting, provide them with some questions that you will have for them so that they can be more prepared.
PRE-EMPT Questions
Before each meeting, anticipate the questions you will probably be asked and know how you would respond to them.
When composing an email, think about questions that your client might have before they get a chance to ask them. Are they going to ask you for an ETA on their issue or to elaborate a bit further on your point? It helps to reread your email once you complete drafting it and ask yourself if you are being proactive and answering any possible questions.
Ask Questions as Needed
It is always better to ask too many questions than not to ask any and become more confused. Asking questions shows curiosity, and it shows that you care. So, chances are, your clients will appreciate it.73
Pay Attention to Non-Verbals
Verbal and written communication is not the only thing that matters. Non-verbal communication is just as important. When talking with your client in person, pay attention to how you are presenting yourself non-verbally. What is your posture like? How is your body language? Are you making eye contact (if appropriate)?
Check out the following video for some more tips for effective communication.
The IT professional often becomes the project manager for many IT activities. The IT person is the one with the overview of what needs to occur for the project to be completed successfully. They need to coordinator the supplier, the client, and any other people that may be required (e.g. electricians, network installers, etc.).
What is the role of the project manager?
Project managers are essential–they set and help the team meet project milestones. They do this by performing the following:
Guiding the project from Strategy through to development
A good project manager helps to keep the design process on track, steering towards opportunities and coaching through challenges.
Anticipating roadblocks
Having a project manager who anticipates and gets on top of roadblocks early is invaluable to a project team. This will allow the project team to focus their efforts on what they do best, and clients will appreciate this high-level problem-solving that lets the project move along smoothly.
Facilitating open communication
When project managers handle communication and logistics, it leaves the rest of the team free to focus on productive work. The project manager should communicate with the client regularly to provide updates on progress and seek feedback. A good project manager links together the client, the project team, and any other important stakeholders.
Having a good understanding of the clients and projects
Project managers should keep up-to-date with current industry trends and best practices. Having a variety of clients and projects will help keep strategy and project management skills sharp.
Using collaboration tools
It is useful to use the same collaboration tools as your clients for communicating, creating to-do lists and tracking project progress. This way, your clients can continue to use the same lines of communication that they are used to with your project team. Some examples of helpful collaboration tools are Slack, Teams, Zoom, Trello, Asana and ZenHub.
Thinking about business and championing good culture
'While it is important to have a team that is collaborative and supportive, forming teams where each member can focus on their strengths is part of the secret sauce that allows project teams to deliver consistent, high-quality work.' (Down, S., 2021).
Activity
As a group decide on a virtual team building game from: https://www.sessionlab.com/blog/virtual-team-building-games/#skillshare.
Once you have decided upon a game, think about how the decision was reached. Some specific questions are:
- How did you even communicate?
- Was everyone in the team included in the decision-making process?
- How were differences of opinions resolved?
Having learnt a bit about communicating as a team, you are going to do a small project. Design a small suite of scripts that will collect the following information about a computer:
- Computer name
- Physical RAM
- Physical Drive
- CPU details (manufacturer, model, number of cores, and speed).
Once these details have been captured have a system where they can be:
- Displayed on a form
- Exported to a CSV file.
Have another script that will import the CSV and use it to create a new VM with a different name. Once the details have been read have them come up in a form where the user can update the information as required before the VM is created.
Select one of the group to function as Project manager and negotiate between the team members who will undertake what tasks. Two or more people, in this activity, can work on the same task in order to aid the learning. The role of the project manager is to make sure the activity is completed in time to do the module assessments.
