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Internal Communication Guidelines

Overview

This document outlines how we use Microsoft Teams and other internal communication channels for effective collaboration on our SaaS CRM project.

Microsoft Teams Structure

Team Organization

CRM Development Team
├── 📢 General
├── 🚀 Channels by Function
│   ├── development
│   ├── product
│   ├── design
│   ├── qa-testing
│   ├── devops
│   └── support
├── 🎯 Channels by Purpose
│   ├── daily-standups
│   ├── release-planning
│   ├── bug-tracking
│   ├── feature-discussions
│   ├── architecture
│   └── documentation
└── 🔧 Channels by Environment
    ├── production-issues
    ├── staging-updates
    └── dev-environment

Channel Purposes

Channel Purpose Key Members Update Frequency
#general Company-wide announcements All As needed
#daily-standups Daily team sync Dev team Daily 9 AM
#development Code discussions Developers Continuous
#bug-tracking Bug reports and status Dev + QA Real-time
#release-planning Release coordination All teams Weekly
#production-issues Critical production alerts On-call team Immediate

Communication Protocols

Daily Standup Format

Teams Channel: #daily-standups

Time: 9:00 AM EST Daily Format: Written updates (async-friendly)

**[Your Name] - [Date]**

Yesterday:
✅ Completed user authentication module
✅ Fixed bug CRM-456

Today:
🔄 Working on payment integration
🔄 Code review for PR #123

Blockers:
🚫 Need API credentials from payment provider

Bug Reporting Protocol

Teams Channel: #bug-tracking

🐛 **BUG REPORT - [Severity: Critical/High/Medium/Low]**

**Issue**: Brief description
**Environment**: Production/Staging/Dev
**Steps to Reproduce**: 
1. Step one
2. Step two

**Expected**: What should happen
**Actual**: What actually happens
**Screenshot**: [Attach if applicable]

**Assigned to**: @developer
**Ticket**: CRM-XXX

Feature Discussion Format

Teams Channel: #feature-discussions

💡 **FEATURE DISCUSSION: [Feature Name]**

**Proposal**: Brief description
**Business Value**: Why we need this
**Technical Approach**: High-level solution
**Effort Estimate**: X days/weeks
**Discussion Points**:
- Point 1
- Point 2

**Decision Needed By**: [Date]
@relevantpeople - Please provide input

Notification Standards

Priority Levels

Priority Tag Response Time Example
P0 - Critical 🚨 @channel Immediate System down
P1 - Urgent ⚠️ @here 1 hour Major bug
P2 - High 📍 @team 4 hours Feature blocked
P3 - Normal 💬 24 hours General discussion

Escalation Path

graph TD
    A[Issue Identified] --> B{Severity?}
    B -->|Critical| C[Post in #production-issues]
    B -->|High| D[Post in relevant channel]
    B -->|Medium/Low| E[Create ticket]
    C --> F[@channel notification]
    D --> G[@team notification]
    F --> H[Call on-call engineer]
    G --> I[Tag responsible team]

Meeting Management

Meeting Types

Meeting Frequency Duration Attendees Channel
Daily Standup Daily 15 min Dev team #daily-standups
Sprint Planning Bi-weekly 2 hours Full team #release-planning
Retrospective Bi-weekly 1 hour Full team #general
Architecture Review Weekly 1 hour Tech leads #architecture
Release Planning Monthly 2 hours Stakeholders #release-planning

Meeting Notes Template

## Meeting Notes: [Meeting Name]
**Date**: [Date]
**Attendees**: @person1, @person2
**Recording**: [Link if available]

### Agenda
1. Topic 1
2. Topic 2

### Discussion Points
- Point 1: [Details]
- Point 2: [Details]

### Decisions
✅ Decision 1
✅ Decision 2

### Action Items
- [ ] @person1: Task 1 (Due: Date)
- [ ] @person2: Task 2 (Due: Date)

### Next Meeting
Date/Time: [Next meeting details]

Information Sharing

Pinned in #general

📌 **Essential Links**
- [GitHub Repository](link)
- [Project Wiki](link)
- [API Documentation](link)
- [Deployment Guide](link)
- [Team Calendar](link)

Knowledge Sharing Sessions

Weekly Tech Talks

  • When: Fridays 3 PM
  • Where: Teams Meeting
  • Format: 30 min presentation + 15 min Q&A
  • Topics: New technologies, lessons learned, best practices

Documentation Days

  • When: Last Friday of month
  • Purpose: Update documentation
  • Output: Updated wikis, READMEs, guides

Status Updates

Weekly Status Report

Posted in: #general (Fridays)

📊 **Weekly Status Report - Week of [Date]**

### ✅ Completed This Week
- Feature X deployed to production
- Bug fixes: CRM-123, CRM-124, CRM-125
- Performance improvements: 20% faster load times

### 🔄 In Progress
- Feature Y: 60% complete
- Database migration: Testing phase
- Mobile app v2: Design finalized

### 📅 Next Week
- Complete Feature Y
- Deploy database migration
- Start mobile app development

### 🚫 Blockers
- Waiting for third-party API access
- Need design approval for Feature Z

### 📈 Metrics
- Sprint Velocity: 45 points
- Bug Count: ↓ 15% from last week
- Test Coverage: 82%

cc: @management

Project Milestone Updates

🎯 **MILESTONE ACHIEVED: [Milestone Name]**

We've successfully completed [milestone description].

**Key Achievements**:
✅ Achievement 1
✅ Achievement 2
✅ Achievement 3

**Impact**:
- Customer benefit 1
- Customer benefit 2

**Next Milestone**: [Name] - Target: [Date]

Great work team! 🎉

File Sharing

Teams Files Structure

Teams Files/
├── Documentation/
│   ├── Technical Specs/
│   ├── User Guides/
│   └── Meeting Notes/
├── Designs/
│   ├── Mockups/
│   ├── Wireframes/
│   └── Assets/
├── Reports/
│   ├── Weekly Status/
│   ├── Bug Reports/
│   └── Performance/
└── Resources/
    ├── Templates/
    ├── Scripts/
    └── Tools/

File Naming Conventions

[YYYY-MM-DD]_[Type]_[Description]_[Version]

Examples:
2025-01-15_Spec_PaymentIntegration_v1.docx
2025-01-15_MeetingNotes_SprintPlanning.pdf
2025-01-15_Design_CheckoutFlow_v2.fig

Best Practices

Do's

  1. Use Threads: Keep conversations organized
  2. Tag People: Use @mentions for attention
  3. Search First: Check if question already answered
  4. Update Status: Keep your status current
  5. Be Responsive: Acknowledge messages promptly
  6. Use Reactions: 👍 to acknowledge without cluttering

Don'ts

  1. Don't Spam: Avoid unnecessary @channel mentions
  2. Don't DM First: Use channels for transparency
  3. Don't Ignore: Respond to direct questions
  4. Don't Assume: Clarify if unsure
  5. Don't Delete: Edit messages instead
  6. Don't Share Sensitive: No passwords/keys in Teams

Integration with Other Tools

Teams Integrations

Tool Integration Purpose
GitHub Notifications PR updates, commits
Jira Bot Ticket updates
Jenkins Webhooks Build status
Sentry Alerts Error tracking
PagerDuty Alerts On-call notifications

Automation Examples

# GitHub to Teams
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, closed]

notify:
  channel: "#development"
  message: "PR #{number} {action} by {author}"

Emergency Communication

Incident Response

Critical Issue Protocol

  1. Immediate: Post in #production-issues
  2. Tag: @channel for critical, @here for urgent
  3. Call: Phone on-call engineer if no response in 5 min
  4. Update: Every 30 minutes until resolved

Incident Template

🚨 **INCIDENT: [Description]**
**Status**: Investigating | Identified | Monitoring | Resolved
**Severity**: Critical
**Impact**: [Number] customers affected
**Started**: [Time]

**Updates**:
- [Time]: Investigation started
- [Time]: Root cause identified
- [Time]: Fix deployed
- [Time]: Monitoring

**Action Required**: [If any]

Incident Commander: @person
Thread for updates 👇

Metrics & Feedback

Communication Health Metrics

  • Response Time: Average time to first response
  • Thread Completion: % of threads resolved
  • Meeting Attendance: Average attendance rate
  • Documentation Updates: Frequency of updates
  • Channel Activity: Messages per day per channel

Feedback Collection

📋 **Monthly Teams Feedback**

Help us improve our communication!

1. Which channels are most useful?
2. Any channels we should add/remove?
3. Is information easy to find?
4. Communication pain points?
5. Suggestions for improvement?

Submit feedback: [Form link]

Last Updated: January 2025 Version: 1.0.0