Effective Status Communication #

The complex nature of work that is inherent to any environment in which the individuals performing the work are autonomous, and expected to make decisions on their own in order to move the project forward, communicating status about their work is a must have skill in order to make the whole team work effectively.

Status communication are the signals we send others about our current situation to inform them about things proceeding according to plan, new uncertainties that arose during work that require a deviation from the original plan, roadblocks at which we are stuck and accomplished milestones that indicates progress.

Communicating with others is not writing detailed logs about everything we do but sending the right signals at the right time frequency so that everyone is in the loop and knows what is happening.

In the same fashion that when we develop complex systems we make it send success signals that indicates if everything is working as expected, warning signals if the system is working but there are things that require our attention and danger signals if the system is not working are requires our immediate action to fix it.

The receiving end of the signal is interested in knowing how is everything proceeding at a glance and have the necessary context information when something happens.

When everything is going as expected, then no context information is required.

When there are hiccups but progress is still made, then adding context about why things are not progressing as expected and what are the current solutions being applied so that everyone is aware of the delays and to keep an eye until it goes back to progressing as expected.

When there are roadblocks and no progress can be made, then adding context about why and how did it happen and what the possible solutions are, what decisions need to be made that whomever is performing the work cannot make and if extra help is required so that everyone is aware of the problems and can come with a helping hand.

The frequency at which we communicate the status of our work is determined by the amount and severity of our problems. 

Communicating our overall status with all the things that are going as expected, problems and roadblocks should be done on a regular basis but never more frequent than on a weekly basis to avoid spamming. 

Hiccups can wait until the next status update to avoid raising concerns constantly and avoid a constant panic state, in contrast, roadblocks should be communicated immediately so that the search for solutions can begin as soon as possible.