On Wednesday, December 21, #MandCPL wiht Vadim Izdebskiy organized a workshop called “Business correspondence: writing e-mails that won't get ignored”. Agenda: - Got mail? - The Do’s and the Don’ts - Practical exercise - Q&A - Bonus:Outlook and Gmail tips & tricks

1. Business
Correspondence
{ Writing emails that won’t get ignored

2.  9+ years in software
development
 From Junior C++
developer to Program
Manager / Tech
Consultant
 Teams from 3 to 10
people
 Customers from
Belgium, Australia, Cana
da, US, Germany, UK, M
alta, Denmark
 …Email Nazi!
Who is this guy?

3. So, need to write an email?

4. A bit of Theory
{ Stolen thoughts and ideas

5.  Self Fulfilling email
 Inquiry
 Open-Ended dialog
 Action email
What is the Purpose?

6.  Spends a long time crafting the
‘perfect’ email.
 Believes that their request is
original, unique, and special.
 Cannot imagine why anyone
would turn them away.
 Desires to tell the whole story
Who is Sender?

8.  Gets a lot of email
 Regularly gets asked a standard
set of questions and favors
 Does not have a lot of free time
 Does not mind helping you, if it is
fast
Who is Receiver?

9. 2.7 seconds
Time to take decision

11. To construct email that:
 Will actually be read
 Will actually be understood
 Will not annoy receiver
 Doesn’t take too much time to react
Our Goal

12. Composition
{ Building blocks

13.  Never ever forget it!
 One phrase summary
 Short, informative, related
 Reflects the purpose
Subject:

14. People who need to
respond
or
take action
To:

15. People who need to
be informed
CC:

16. What about BCC:?

18.  Introduction
 Problem description
 Conclusion
Body:

19. { http://level2.ciklum.net/index.php?option=com_userdet
Signature

20. Tips on Content
{ Length, look, style

21.  Remember to KISS
 Pretend face-to-face intro
 Use text message trick
 Minimize questions
 Do word trimming
 …but be personal
Tips

22.  Use Simple English
 Ask for reaction explicitly
 Split to parts for different
people/actions/questions
 Bold people names (use @, twitter-style)
 Use links instead of attachments
 Define abbreviations
 Put reference info to the very end
Dos

23.  Don’t overuse High Importance (!) and
red color
 Don’t use Royal English
 Don’t misspell names
 Avoid jargon
 Avoid using different fonts, sizes and
colors
Donts

25. Ready to press ‘Send’?

26. Read it!
(three times)

29. Examples
{ The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

30. -----Original Message-----
From: David W
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 10:32 AM
To: Roberts, John
Subject: repeated server warnings
John,
Below is terminal output I got the first time I started the server process. The warning
about the lock file is coming out every 30 seconds. Where is it trying to write this
file? Would this be caused by some kind of permission problem?
Thanks,
David Winch
NGT Development
Mar 30, 2006 10:21:48 AM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences$2 run
INFO: Created user preferences directory.
Mar 30, 2006 10:21:49 AM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences$3 run
WARNING: Could not create system preferences directory. System preferences are
unusable.
Mar 30, 2006 10:22:19 AM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences checkLockFile0ErrorCode
WARNING: Could not lock System prefs. Unix error code 805449496.
Mar 30, 2006 10:22:49 AM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences checkLockFile0Err

31. -----Reply Message-----
From: Roberts, John
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:04 AM
To: David W
Subject: RE: repeated server warnings
David,
What environment variables do you use in the command line? I have
not come across this before. Probably, permissions to default locations
where the java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences class tries to write
preferences are insufficient.
Please, let me know if I can help more.
Regards,
John Roberts
Support Engineer

32. ----- Message-----
From: Roberts, John
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 03:12 PM
To: Neit, Paul
Subject: Build environment corrupted?
Paul,
While trying to make the latest build I am getting the following error:
$ . ./ngtmake_9_1.ksh
Error: cannot access ngt9-13.jar
The testing team is stuck on getting the release acceptance. Could you please look into the
problem ASAP and let me know?
Thanks in advance,
John Roberts
Support Engineer

33. From: Cathy
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 4:16 PM
To: Gille, Andrew
Cc:
Subject:
Andy, I don’t know for sure but check what it takes to load NDPT data into the test DB.
Thank you, Cathy.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gille, Andrew
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:32 AM
To: Goodwriter, Cathy
Cc: Grace, Bill
Subject: Problem loading production database
Dear Cathy,
Could you please help me with understaing of a root cause for such a strange behavior of database loading scripts.
I wonder why time being consumed exceeds the limits set in the functional requirements. We have been testing
the database with customer data this week and require your input asap. Bill, what do you think of this?
Sincerely,
Andrew Gille

34. Homework
{ Yep, I know 

35. Report a technical problem on a customer
side that blocks your work
 Addressee: Vadim Izdebskiy, Program Manager
 Problem: No access to source code
 Timeline: End of major phase, time to build
 Urgency: Severity 1 issue
 Action: Resolution required from customer
Exercise 1

36. You are missing a deadline
 Addressee: Vadim Izdebskiy, Program Manager
 Milestone: RC code freeze
Exercise 2

37. … and MORE!
I will be happy to discuss
it with you FURTHER
Thank you!

38. Bonus