Communication between IT personnel and other individuals

How many times have you read an email or document and been extremely confused because some of the terms in the message were difficult to understand. In some cases, these messages or documents have been written by someone in an IT department, and it is full of IT terms and acronyms.

In a number of cases, these messages are trying to inform you of information that is important to you and your work. IT personnel sometimes seem to have a language all of their own, and it is hard for them to communicate without using their shortcuts. In some cases, it’s even difficult for other IT personnel to understand each other.

It is extremely important to remember that when you are writing an email or document that is going to be used by others in the company that you use language that everyone is going to understand. If you are going to use an acronym in your document, ensure that at the beginning of the document you write it out in long-hand and then show the acronym. This is important even when talking to other IT personnel because an acronym can mean a number of different things even to IT personnel. Here is an example of one acronym having three different meanings.

DC - direct current, domain controller and data centre

It is vital to ensure that a document or email can be understood by all that are going to receive it. Using IT specific terms can result in a misunderstanding of the document, or in some cases the entire document will be ignored due to the confusion. Using simple writing is the best way to ensure that the message is going to be received and understood by everyone. This method of communication doesn’t just go for written, it should also be used when talking to individuals. If you are using terms that the recipient doesn’t understand, your message will not be received correctly.

Remember, not everyone is from IT and not even IT personnel use all the same terms and meanings.