Slack

At Truss we prefer Slack as our primary communication tool over email. Truss is responsible not just for doing the work, but for teaching our clients how we do the work - which means talking about the failures, exploring the nitty-gritty, and Working Shoulder to Shoulder. We typically use a project specific Slack workspace or shared Slack channels for direct communication with the client, while the Truss Slack instance is used for internal communication.

We generally prefer to @ a specific person in a public channel over direct messaging that person. This helps everyone maintain visibility and open communication. In this same spirit, feel free to drop any questions you have in the appropriate #client-[project-name] channel (or the appropriate sub-channel if the question is directed at a specific team or group) — whomever is able to help will respond. It may be that others are wondering the same thing!

Depending on the size and complexity of the project, the scope and number of channels may vary.

Our Truss-only channel for a project is #client-project-internal. Our recommended practice is to put only what should not be said in front of the client here. We should push ourselves to reserve this only for topics that are confidential (contract terms) or might be inflammatory (relationship management), not to hide “how the sausage is made.”

Project Channels

The most common project channels are:

#client-[project-name] (e.g. #client-spaceforce)- the Slack channel shared by Truss, sub-contractors and the client. You can ask anyone in #client-project to add you
#client-[project-name]-internal (e.g. #client-sith-internal) - the slack channel that is for Truss internal discussions only
#client-[project-name]-steering - the slack channel for practice leads on the project to discuss strategy and give updates about the project. The steering channel can also be a good spot to post summaries of leads meetings or other internal team decisions.
#client-[project-name]-staffing - the slack channel to discuss staffing requirements and changes

Individual practices may require their own channels on larger projects, which may include:

#client-project-delivery
#client-project-design
#client-project-eng
#client-project-infrasec
#client-project-product

As the use of Slack expands, we may link our Slack with a partner’s Slack instance and have shared channels. The recommended prefix for these channels is #shared-project. To link the channels, both Slack instances will need to have channels with the same name. .

In some instances, the client may provide their own instance of Slack. We should strive to use the above naming conventions on the customer Slack instance. To keep our communications open, we should create only the minimal number of corresponding channels on the Truss Slack instance.