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General Guidelines for Tools on Project Teams

Slack

  • We use Slack for casual and/or working chats
  • Slack communications are often asynchronous
  • To notify someone in particular, type @name with your message
  • If you want to call attention to everyone subscribed to channel, write @channel
  • To alert only those in a channel or group who are online, write @here
  • We default to open, so when in doubt, message the group in the channel (#client-project-name) instead of a direct message
  • CivicActions can download archival Slack messages if needed
  • The expected response time for Slack messages is 2-3 hours during working days
  • Use threading in Slack to keep conversations concise and clear

Email

  • We prefer Slack over email - generally email is used for communicating with people who are not on Slack, for sending formal deliverables, etc.
  • We use a list (client@civicactions.com) for emails; this list includes everyone on the team (as well as some additional stakeholders and support staff)
  • We recommend keeping emails transparent to the team, e.g., anything that applies to everyone
  • State the name of the person or persons that need to pay attention to email: NAME: Subject or ALL: Subject
  • CivicActions team members might include a signature that indicates we are contractors to the given organization
  • The expected response time for email messages is within 24 hours

Jira

  • We track all work (current and planned) in Jira or an equivalent
  • If we are discussing something that needs to be done and there isn't already a Jira ticket, we will create one
  • If we are discussing something in Slack or on a call that does relate to a ticket, we make sure the conversation is recorded in the ticket (even if it's only a copy-paste of the Slack chat)
  • We ensure that tickets are up to date - tickets being actively worked on at least daily (normally more) and doing a pass through all other assigned tickets 2 or 3 times a week
Last update January 1, 2025.