Communication for Engineers PDF
Preview Communication for Engineers
Communication for Engineers A framework for software developers to become better communicators and increase their happiness, productivity, and impact Chris Laffra Ahead In The Cloud Computing Aalsmeer Communication for Engineers by Chris Laffra Copyright © 2021 Chris Laffra. All Rights Reserved. Printing History March 2021: First Edition September 2021: Typo Fixes Contact: chrislaffra.com/c4e Table of Contents Dedication Acknowledgements Foreword Chapter 1 Why this Book? Five Keys To a Successful Team The Communication Process Chapter 2 Outline The Structure of this Book Foundation Things People Impact What this book is not about How to Use this Book Chapter 3 Branding Who are you? Your Elevator Pitch Shaking Hands Name and Face Blindness Being your True Self Audience Chapter 4 Interaction Human Needs The Value of Networks The Dunbar Number Collaboration Disagreements How to Talk to People Giving Compliments Chapter 5 Emotions Emotional Intelligence Self-awareness Self-regulation Motivation Empathy Social Skills So many Skills to Master Chapter 6 Documents Types of Documents Document Structure Collaborating with Documents Document Organization Concise Documents Use Case: Design Documents Use Case: Team Onboarding Docs Chapter 7 Tickets Ticket Types Bug Reports Feature Requests Tickets == Communication Become a Ticketing Pro Chapter 8 Code Clean Code Readability Committing Code Code Reviews Demo your Code Chapter 9 Emails Best use for Emails Getting Responses to Emails Inbox Zero Setting the Right Tone Use an Email Signature Email as Workflow Tooling The Problem With Robot Emails Use case: Site Newsletter Chapter 10 Chats Productive Chats Chat is not a System of Record Chat is not a Workflow Tool Chat Etiquette Emotional Chats Chapter 11 Reading Reading is a Superpower An Experiment Typesetting Amazon Narrative Meetings Chapter 12 Writing Writing versus Execution How to Write Well How to Sound Literate Use Proper Grammar Writing Opportunities Blog Writing Storytelling Chapter 13 Planning Objectives and Key Results Effective Planning Standup Chapter 14 Meetings Meeting Productivity Taxonomy of Meetings Skip The Meeting Find Alternatives to Meetings Meeting Rules The Perfect Meeting Duration Make It A Tesla Meeting Video Conferencing Zoom Fatigue Chapter 15 Presenting The Ideal Talk Presentation Structure The Ideal Slide Speaker Training Sharing your Screen Camera Techniques Presenting is Exciting Chapter 16 Stakeholders Who are your Stakeholders? Stakeholder Management Collaborating with Stakeholders Chapter 17 Interviewing An Interview is Communication As an Interviewer Communicating as an Interviewer As a Candidate Communicating as a Candidate Show Interest in the Company Topics to avoid The Ideal Interview Candidate Chapter 18 Learning How to learn The Science behind Learning Accelerating your Learning Chapter 19 Growing Productivity Setting Personal Growth Goals Self Evaluation Giving Feedback Receiving Feedback Procrastination One-on-One Meetings Mentoring Chapter 20 Ranking Yourself Intermediate Communicator Experienced Communicator Advanced Communicator Conclusions Dedication For Carla, who has always supported me when I was chasing my dreams. Acknowledgements I would like to take the time to thank all my past colleagues at OTI, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Google, and Uber. I have been privileged in my tech career, and I was fortunate to have spent time with so many colleagues who turned into friends as time progressed. From many of you, I have learned how to be a better communicator. Sometimes, I did this by merely observing you as a role model. On other occasions, you mentored me in 1:1 sessions. Without all of you, this book would not exist. My writing career began in earnest while doing my Ph.D. at Leiden University in the same group as Hans Jense, Peter van Oosterom, and Remco Veltkamp. You three were the first real “team” I was part of, as students under Prof. van den Bos. I could not have wished for a better set of people to start growing my technical and communication skills. In that same Leiden period, I also edited a book, together with Edwin H. Blake, Vicki de Mey, and Xavier Pintado. Thank you three for laying a foundation of communication skills that I could leverage later in my career. The last two years of my Ph.D. I spent at SERC in Utrecht. So much I learned there on the topics of communication, interacting with stakeholders, and even organizing a real conference, ECOOP'90. Gert Florijn, Eugene Bogaart, Paul Hendriks, Anco Smit, and Theo de Ridder: I really enjoyed our daily walks to pick up our "Broodje Mario". I started my engineering career at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in the company of countless communication experts. One person, John Vlissides, has been particularly influential in that early phase of my career. John was
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