According to Statistics, it is estimated that by 2030, 45 million people will be working as software engineers worldwide. Software engineering is a widely growing profession, with numerous young people opting for it due to financial growth, intellectual development, diversity, flexibility, challenges, and personal satisfaction. To be a successful software engineer, you need to be creative, innovative, concise, disciplined, and an excellent communicator.
As a software engineer, creative alignment between the team and the client is an absolute necessity. Regardless of the state of the project, communication plays an integral part. As a client, you should be able to clearly communicate your vision for the product to the software team. Communicating your needs ensures that the software team builds what you ask for, as clear communication increases the chances of launching a successful software project.
Importance Of Communication Skills For Software Engineers
Software engineers do not work in an isolated environment. They have to deal with various clients, overcome cultural differences and language barriers, coordinate with a team that might be working across different continents, and also have to answer to their reporting manager. Therefore, if you’re thinking of hiring an offshore team of engineers to develop a software project for you, you need to vet them for communication skills.
Remote Workers
These uncertain times have forced numerous companies to go remote, which eliminates the possibility of talking face to face with your colleagues and clients. Working in a remote environment makes it difficult to communicate with your team effectively, which makes collaborating on projects challenging to handle. As an engineer, you have to be able to hold conversations via messages as remote workers mainly collaborate through various messaging and collaboration tools. Trello, Jira, Spark, Zoom, and Asana are some of the most valuable tools for remote workers.
Technical Communication
An engineer should act as a bridge between the technical and business sides of a project. When talking to the client, the engineer should understand the business context. You should propose viable technical solutions to the client’s problems. It is also crucial for the engineer to be able to explain business requirements to their team as technical requirements so they can understand the project better. Every person in a developing team has different areas of strength and different levels of technical knowledge; therefore, it is essential for the team to work as a united front on a project so they can produce viable solutions and deliver a satisfactory project to their client.
Respecting Your Coworkers And Clients
Respecting your coworkers and clients is an unquestionable necessity. According to a survey conducted in 2014, respectful treatment of all employees at all levels was rated as ‘very important’ by 73% of those surveyed, making it the top contributor to overall employee job satisfaction. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect; here are some of the tips you can use to demonstrate respect in your workplace to your clients and fellow employees.
- Treat people with kindness, courtesy, and politeness
- Encourage coworkers to share their ideas
- Never interrupt your clients and teammates
- Don’t micromanage or demean others
- Treat people equally no matter their age, race, gender, etc
- Always praise more than you criticize.
Communicating With The Client
It is impossible to be a successful engineer without being able to communicate with the client. With most software companies working with offshore clients, it has become incredibly important for engineers to have a decent understanding of the cultural context and communication styles of numerous clients from different countries. An engineer should be equipped with the ability to quickly adapt the client’s team’s work process and team composition and should be fluent in the language their client speaks so that things don’t get lost in translation. An engineer should also be equipped with handling other modes of communication, such as sending out emails, reports, visuals, videos, and demos to explain things.
Skills Required For Effective Communication
Effective communication for software engineers is essential. Here is a list of skills required for effective communication.
Active Listening
The only way to be a highly-sought-after software engineer is to be a good listener. You can practice paraphrasing and repeating what the person says before commenting on it. Listen to your teammates and clients attentively, and do not interrupt them while they’re explaining something. Being a good listener is an essential skill to be an effective communicator. It allows you to build great rapport with people and demonstrates respect to your peers, teammates, and clients.
Be Brief
A crucial communication skill is to be brief and to the point. No one enjoys long meetings and going over the same issues over and over. Try to keep your meetings short, concise, and informative. This practice increases productivity and is less time-consuming. As the saying goes, quality over quantity. So keep your conversations, reports, and emails brief and meaningful rather than long and dreary.
Empathy
Empathy leadership means having the ability to understand the needs of others and being considerate of their feelings. Being an engineer is creative work, and creativity cannot thrive in a place without kindness. Here are some of the practices developers can implement to be better empaths:
- Watch signs for burnout among your team and help them recover from overwork
- Show sincere interest in your fellow employees’ needs, hopes, and dreams
- Show compassion when people in the workplace are going through some personal loss
- Embrace empathy to signal its value in the workplace
- Encourage genuine perspective-talking
Conflict Resolution
Another essential skill that is a must for effective communication is the ability to resolve conflicts. With a team of intelligent, hardworking, and innovative engineers working together on a project, disputes and disagreements are bound to happen. Difference of opinion is often the cause of conflict between teams where teammates argue on the best possible solution to a technical problem. This is where this skill comes in handy. An engineer should be equipped with the ability to resolve conflicts and come up with a solution that is satisfactory for all of the teammates. This ability encourages productivity, innovation, and unity among the team.
Ways To Improve Your Communication As An Engineer
Not everyone has an extroverted and easy-going personality, and sometimes it’s difficult for people to come out of their shells. The inability to communicate with your teams and clients is one of the main reasons teams come across numerous problems while working on a project.
Know Your Team
It is essential to stay up-to-date with the latest technology as an engineer, but it is also crucial to know your team. Being comfortable with conversations means being open to people about your life outside of work. Try to get to know your teammates on a personal level and build authentic relationships with them found on the grounds of friendship.
Practice Makes Perfect
Another way to improve your communication skills is to practice. Join staff meetings regularly and voice your opinion in those meetings. This practice will help you come out of your shell and encourage other employees to be more forthcoming as well. You can also use these meetings to socialize with the other employees.
Healthy Conflicts
Do not shy away from healthy conflicts. It is perfectly normal for two teammates to have different opinions or approaches to a project. It is essential to have productive debates before designing solutions, as it helps the team be more productive and ends up being a time-saver.
Face The Fear And Improve
The only way to be equipped with good communication skills is to move past your fear of speaking up in public to voice your opinions. Participate in different presentations and take the lead when dealing with a client. Though it might be a daunting experience, it will help you become more confident and equip you with practical communication skills.
Conclusion
Our team at Genetech Solutions believes that effective communication is essential for engineers and encourages our employees to consistently improve their communication skills as part of our teamwork remotely as well. We have worked with numerous offshore clients and also offer staff augmentation services to our customers. You can also check out our case studies to find out about the numerous offshore clients we have successfully helped.
We hope you enjoyed this article and it was helpful for you. Feel free to contact us if you have any queries.
I am a medical student and an avid fiction reader, with a penchant for travelling. I am currently working as a junior content writer at Genetech Solutions, one of Pakistan’s leading Software houses.
