Effective email correspondence in IT

Working in IT, there is a great temptation to save time on the quality of email correspondence by sending letters "as it should." However, for large companies this often leads to a deterioration in communication and a decrease in the efficiency of work on a project (due to the large number of people involved in decision-making).

To avoid this, I suggest the following selection of recommendations for email correspondence , selected by me from a dozen sources. Immediately, I note that one of the criteria for the effectiveness of email communications is to get what you want with minimal distraction from other colleagues.
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So, the general:

1. The response time, by default, is expected no later than 24 hours.
2. If you sent two letters, but no answer - call. If phoned does not resolve the issue, make an appointment.
3. If you can not answer, write down immediately that you answer then XX.XX.
4. If the letter is not to you, then answer "most likely you were mistaken by the addressee." Otherwise, the person will wait for an answer and lose time, hoping for you.

Addressees:

1. If possible, do not pull everyone into the copy. Copy others if:
   
   • they asked you about it;
   • they should receive this letter.
2. If the question is clearly solved with one of the people in the copy, then answer to everyone that decide it with him and tell everyone only the final result. Remember that the more people in the chain, the less a sense of responsibility to respond to it.
3. But be prepared for the fact that almost no one reads the letters, where they are delivered in a copy.

Topic of the letter:

1. One topic - one letter. If the subject of the letter has changed as a result of the correspondence, change the subject and title of the letter.
2. Brief essence immediately: In the subject immediately write what you want to get.
3. Add status tags to the subject line. [Info], [Action_required], [Not Urgent], [Documents], “FYI” - for letters that do not require actions from the recipient. Save his time.

Chains of letters (threads)

1. Change thread . Do not “steal” the topic of correspondence by entering into correspondence with other topics for discussion. Just create a new thread (chain of letters) with your theme.
2. Exclusion of recipients . If you need to discuss a question only with some addressees, exclude the rest, and add a separate line "- Semyon, Igor" at the beginning of the letter, so that the addressees understand this change.
3. Also, if someone is no longer required in the correspondence, then you can put it in the BCC (hidden copy) and notify him about it:

   @Ivan, thank you for participating in the discussion, I put you in the BCC, so as not to distract you

4. Add recipients . Similarly, do not forget to indicate “+ Alexey” at the beginning of the letter.
5. Use accepted EOM or NNTR codes . By adding EOM (= End of message) characters to the subject of a message, you say that the discussion is closed. And NNTR (= No need to respond) - that the answer is not required. It saves both the recipient and your time and you will not receive another letter with a question like:
   

   So, what do you need from me?

6. Answers in other letters :
   Answer in the body of the letter putting initials at the beginning of the answer, so as not to get confused:
   

   Do you agree with the change of layouts?
   [BUT. S.]: Yes, I agree.

   
   You can also change the color / font (but for some recipients the formatting of letters may be disabled and they only see plain text!)
7. Do not pull the entire conversation tail . Many correspondence are delayed and huge tails of past letters grow. Do not pull them. Just imagine what is coming to the colleague or partner who has just arrived in the SS. It is better to leave 3-4 last answer and tell your past arrangements in your own words.

Letter:

1. The bottom line : What you are asking for or proposing should be in the first 15 words in the body of the letter. Also specify the time when you need an answer - a task without a deadline is executed forever.
2. Context : At the beginning of a long letter, describe the context in one sentence, and one sentence, which will be discussed below. Especially for the first letter or when adding a person who does not know the correspondence.
3. Be specific . Avoid open abstract questions, ask closed questions. If you have a question, then in order to get an answer as quickly as possible, offer the recipient possible solutions:
   

   There is such a problem, we offer the following solutions:
   

   • Solution A
   • Solution B
   • Requires discussion

   Which solution is right for you?

   
   

Minutes of the meeting:

First write further actions, then - conclusions and agreements, as they are less important and may not be read to them.

Attachments to letters:

1. When replying to a letter, attached files are not sent. Use forward / forward.
2. Report attachments in the text of the letter (in Mac OS, attachments in letters are easy to miss).
3. Large files (over 5 Mb) upload in a dropbox or google drive and provide the link. In addition, pictures in the body of the letter are often discarded from the history of the letter by mailers, so the link to the cloud again wins.

Signature:

Do not make a sweeping caption with pictures, which often takes up more space than your message. It is inconvenient to scroll. And the pictures are attached to the letter in the form of attachments, and they are constantly required to be checked - is there anything important attached?

Before sending:

1. Re-read and check the spelling before sending.
2. Difficult / emotional letters - write, set aside for an hour, then re-read and, if you are sure, send.
3. You can set up a rule in MS Outlook, which delays any sent email for N minutes in a special Outbox folder. During these N minutes, you can cancel / edit the letter, thereby insure against errors.