Communicating with various Departments

Effective Communication with various departments is very important in order to develop the weekly testing strategy. Below are some key points, which can be discussed on a weekly basis with the following stakeholders.

Research and Development (R&D)
• Effective bug reports.
• Tips for Regression during bug fixing.
• Complex Areas of the code.
• Affected areas after Code Optimization.
• Implementation schedule of features.
• Components with maximum code changes.
• Unit Testing of implemented features.
• Feedback on Test planning.
• Components with high defect rejection.


Product Management (PM)
• Use cases for the features.
• Customer Workflow and frequency of usage.
• Feedback on the Quality of the component.
• Feedback on Usability of the components.
• Feedback on Test planning.


Technical Support
• Type and frequency of queries.
• Issues reported and workarounds given for the components.
• Overall feedback for a Product.
• Integration of a particular feature with other features.
• Expectations of the customer from our Products.
• Third Party XTensions used by the customers.


Customers

Email Communication:

Do’s
• Always start the email with a friendly salutation.
• Run a spell check on the emails before sending them to the customer.
• Re-read the email before sending it to ensure that the email conveys the right message and does not sound too cold or rude.
• Include confidentiality notice in your e-mails.
• Keep the MDA in CC and the customer in the TO list while replying.
• If the customer is not responding write to the respective MDA.


Don’ts
• Avoid writing emails with unclear subject lines.
• If unsure about the customer’s gender, refrain from using Mr/Mrs.
• Don’t use fancy fonts and background images in the email.
• Don’t forward internal mails/communication to the customer.
• Don’t commit anything regarding bug fixes and feature enhancements.
• Don’t use abbreviations which are not commonly understood.
• Don’t write emails in upper case.


Phone Conversations:

Do’s
• Speak in a slow and clear tone.
• Greet the customer when starting a phone conversation or closing it.


Don’ts
• Don’t interrupt the customer in between.
• Don’t show anger, resentment in your tone.

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