Communication Practices - Type of Software Engineering Practice

Before customer requirements can be analyzed, modeled, or specified they must be gathered through a communication activity. Effective communication is among the most challenging activities that confront a software engineer. However, many of the principles apply equally to all forms of communication that occur within a software project.
Software engineers communicate with many stakeholders, but customers and end users
have the most significant impact on the technical work that follows. In some cases the customer and the end user are one in the same, but for many projects, the customer and the end user are different people, working for different managers in different business organizations.

- Listen : Try to focus on the speaker's words, rather than formulating your response to those words.
- Prepare before you communicate.
- Someone should facilitate the activity.
- Face-to-face communication is best.
- Take notes and document decisions.
- Strive for collaboration.
- Stay focused, modularize your discussion.
- If something is unclear, draw a picture.
- Once you agree to something, move on.
- If you can't agree to something, move on.
- If a feature or function is unclear and cannot be clarified at the moment, move on.
- Negotiation is not a contest or a game. It works best when both parties win.