The lost file
On Friday, Aisha saves the final design on her laptop. On Saturday her laptop breaks. On Monday the team has a meeting and nobody has the design.
This does not need to happen. Teams use tools to share files, talk, and keep knowledge in one place.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud storage | Files kept on the internet, so the team can reach them from anywhere. | a shared drive |
| Backup | A second copy of files, kept safe in case the first is lost. | |
| Synchronisation | Keeping files the same on every device automatically. | |
| Instant messaging | Short chat messages that arrive at once. | a team chat |
| Wiki | A website that the whole team can read and edit. | |
| Collaboration hub | One place that brings together chat, files, tasks and calendars. | |
| Community forum | A website where people ask and answer questions in public. | |
| Documentation | Written guides that explain how software works or how to use it. |
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Four groups of team tools
| Group | It helps the team to... | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | Talk to each other | Email, instant messaging, video calls |
| Resource management | Store, protect and share files | Cloud storage, backup, synchronisation |
| Knowledge | Find answers and keep what they learn | Wikis, collaboration hubs, community forums, news sites |
| Documentation | Explain the software to others | A README, a user guide, comments in code |
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Choose the right way to talk
Email is slow but it leaves a record. Use it for decisions and for people outside the team.
Instant messaging is fast. Use it for quick questions. But a chat is hard to search later, so important decisions are lost. Copy them to a wiki or an email.
A video call is best when the talk is long or the subject is hard.
Keep files safe: three ideas
Cloud storage keeps your files online. Everybody gets the latest copy.
Synchronisation copies changes between your devices, so your laptop and phone match.
Backup keeps a second copy. Sync is not backup: if you delete a file, sync deletes it everywhere. A backup still has it.
Quick check: files and talk
Have a go
Quick check: files and talk
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Keep what the team knows
A wiki holds the team knowledge: how to start the project, why a choice was made, who to ask.
A collaboration hub puts chat, files and tasks in one place.
A community forum is public. Millions of developers ask and answer there. Always check the date of an answer: old advice can be wrong now.
News sites also help. They tell the team about new tools, new versions and security problems.
Documentation for two audiences
| Technical audience: developers | Non-technical audience: users | |
|---|---|---|
| Example | A README file | A user guide |
| Says | How to install, run and test the code | How to do a task with the software |
| Words | Technical words are fine | Everyday words, no hard technical words |
| Pictures | Diagrams of the design | Screenshots of each step |
| Example sentence | Run the tests with pytest before every commit. | Press the green Save button to keep your work. |
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