Before you start
Welcome
Welcome! This book is for everyone who works in an IT team and uses English every day: developers, testers, DevOps and support engineers, product managers and team leads.
You probably know many technical words already. You can read the documentation, and you understand the code. But at work you also need the words around the code: how to say that a feature is on track or that a release slipped, how to raise a ticket, flag a risk or walk someone through a change, and which words go together. These are the words that make you sound clear and confident in a stand-up, a review or a call with a customer.
This book teaches 480 of these words and phrases, in 24 short chapters. You meet every word in a real work text, see the words that go with it, practise it and use it in your own writing.
How each chapter works
Every chapter teaches 20 words and phrases in seven steps, with ten exercises.
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 · Word set | Meet 12 key words and phrases, with their meaning and an example, plus 8 more also useful words. |
| 2 · Words that go together | See the natural partners: the verbs, nouns and prepositions that go with each word. |
| 3 · In real life | Read a real work text from the Rota team that uses the new words. |
| 4 · Check the meaning | Match, check and choose. Exercises 1–3. |
| 5 · Use the right word | Fill gaps, choose partners, change word forms. Exercises 4–7. |
| 6 · Say this, not that | Fix the mistakes that many learners make with these words. Exercise 8. |
| 7 · Your turn and quick check | Write a short text with the new words, then do ten quick questions. Exercises 9 and 10. |
After every six chapters, a Part review mixes all the words from that Part. Try it without looking back.
Use the key. All the answers are at the back of the book. When more than one answer is possible, a slash (/) shows them. For the writing tasks, the key gives a model answer: one good version, not the only one.
A few things to know
Levels. Each word is marked B1 or B2. B1 words are common and safe everywhere. B2 words are more precise. The levels are a guide to help you choose; they are not official CEFR results.
Word types. n. = noun · v. = verb · adj. = adjective · adv. = adverb · phr. v. = phrasal verb · phrase = a fixed group of words · abbr. = abbreviation
British and American English. This book uses British spelling (prioritise, organise). Where the tech world uses a different word in some countries, a Tip tells you.
Using this book with Book 1. This is Book 2 of the series. Book 1, Writing at Work for IT Teams B1–B2, teaches how to write tickets, bug reports, pull requests, incident updates and more. Each chapter here ends with a Read next line that shows the matching chapter in Book 1. You can use this book on its own, too.
Meet the Rota team
All the texts in this book come from one team at Northbeam Software, a fully remote company with about 120 people. Its main product is Shiftly, a staff-scheduling app for restaurants, clinics and shops. Shiftly has a web app and a mobile app.
The Rota team builds the scheduling part of Shiftly. They work across six or seven time zones, depending on daylight saving time, so most of their communication is written.
| Name | Role | Based in |
|---|---|---|
| Priya Raman | Backend developer | Bengaluru |
| Mateus Costa | Frontend developer | São Paulo |
| Aiko Tanaka | Developer, joined the team last year | Osaka |
| Oksana Kovalenko | QA engineer | Kraków |
| Kwame Mensah | DevOps engineer | Accra |
| Grace Mwangi | Support lead | Nairobi |
| Lena Hoffmann | Product manager | Berlin |
| Sam Okafor | Engineering manager and team lead | London |
Northbeam’s customers in this book are Greenleaf Clinics, the Casa Lumo restaurants and Brightway Pharmacies. Product tickets start with SHIFT-, infrastructure tickets with OPS-.
All the people, companies and products in this book are fictional, and so are the email addresses, which use example.com. The tools are not real brands either: the team uses “the ticket tracker”, “the team chat” and “the code repository”. Your tools may have other names, but the words work the same way.
Part 1 · The Team and the Work
Chapter 1 · Roles in a Software Team
Goes with Writing at Work, Chapter 21 · Your goal: You can describe the roles in a software team and say clearly who is responsible for what.
On your first day in a new team, the big question is: who does what? Who decides what we build? Who do I ask about the database? Who is my manager? In this chapter you’ll learn the words for the people in a software team and for the work they do. You’ll also learn short, useful phrases like be responsible for, own a feature and hand over. With these words, you can introduce yourself, explain your job and find the right person quickly.
1.1 Word set
| Word or phrase | Type | Level | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| backend developer | n. | B1 | a developer who builds the parts of a system that users don’t see: the server, the API and the database | Priya is a backend developer, so she’s building the new API endpoint for shift swaps. |
| frontend developer | n. | B1 | a developer who builds the parts of an app that users see and click | Mateus is a frontend developer. He’s working on the new swap screen in the mobile app. |
| QA engineer | n. | B1 | a person who tests software and checks its quality before a release (QA = quality assurance) | Our QA engineer found three bugs in the timesheet export before the release. |
| DevOps engineer | n. | B2 | a person who looks after the servers, the build pipeline and deployments | If staging is down, ask Kwame. He’s our DevOps engineer. |
| product manager | n. | B1 | the person who decides what a team builds and why, and talks to customers about it | Lena is the product manager, so she decides which features go into Shiftly 5.2. |
| engineering manager | n. | B2 | the person who manages a team of developers and helps them grow in their careers | Sam is our engineering manager. He does our one-to-ones and runs the retros. |
| tech lead | n. | B2 | an experienced developer who guides the technical decisions of a team | The tech lead of the Payroll team will review our design for the new export. |
| stakeholder | n. | B2 | a person or group who is interested in a project or is affected by it | Before we change the rota page, we need to talk to the stakeholders: support, sales and our biggest customers. |
| report to | phrase | B1 | to have someone as your manager | All the developers on the Rota team report to Sam. |
| be responsible for | phrase | B1 | to have the job of doing or looking after something | Kwame is responsible for the build pipeline. |
| own | v. | B2 | to be the person who is responsible for a feature, a task or a part of a system | Who owns the notification settings? I have a question about them. |
| onboarding | n. | B1 | the process of helping a new person start in a team or company | Aiko’s onboarding took two weeks: a few calls, some reading and a first small ticket. |
Also useful
| Word or phrase | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| full-stack developer | a developer who works on both the frontend and the backend | Aiko wants to become a full-stack developer, so she’s learning more about the database. |
| junior / senior | at an early stage / at an experienced stage of a career | A junior developer often learns a lot from pairing with a senior developer. |
| UX designer | a person who designs how an app looks and how easy it is to use (UX = user experience) | The UX designer made three versions of the swap screen. |
| contractor | a person who works for a company for a fixed time but isn’t an employee | The contractor joins us for three months to help with the mobile app. |
| cross-functional team | a team with people from different areas: development, testing, design and product | In a cross-functional team, you don’t wait weeks for another department. |
| hand over | to give your work, and the information about it, to another person | Before her holiday, Priya handed over the export work to Aiko. |
| pair with | to work closely with another person on the same task, often on one shared screen | I’ll pair with Oksana this afternoon to reproduce the bug. |
| go-to person | the person everyone asks about a topic, because they know it best | Grace is the go-to person for questions about our customers. |
1.2 Words that go together
| Item | Words that go with it |
|---|---|
| be responsible for | be responsible for the API / testing / the release · be directly / fully responsible for |
| report to | report directly to · report to the engineering manager / the head of engineering |
| own | own a feature / a service / part of the code · take ownership of something |
| onboarding | onboarding plan / guide / call · an onboarding buddy · during your onboarding |
| hand over | hand over the work / your tickets · hand something over to someone · write a handover note |
| pair with | pair with a colleague · pair on a bug / a task · pair programming |
| stakeholder | key / internal / external stakeholders · update / involve the stakeholders |
| team | cross-functional / product / platform team · join / lead a team · on the team |
Word forms: own (v.) → owner (n.) → ownership (n.) · responsible (adj.) → responsibility (n.) · hand over (v.) → handover (n.) · onboard (v.) → onboarding (n.)
1.3 In real life
Nadia Haddad, a frontend developer in Lisbon, joins the Rota team on Monday 1 March 2027. Before her first day, Sam Okafor writes a welcome page for her on the team wiki.
Welcome to the Rota team, Nadia!
Hi Nadia, and welcome to Northbeam! You join us as a contractor for three months, and we’re very happy to have you. This page explains who does what, so you always know who to ask.
How we work. The Rota team is a small cross-functional team. Developers, testers, operations and product people work together every day on the rota features of Shiftly.
Who’s who
– Sam Okafor (London), engineering manager. All the developers on the team report to me, and while you’re with us, you report to me too. Tell me if anything isn’t working for you.
– Lena Hoffmann (Berlin), product manager. Lena decides what we build and why. She talks to customers and other stakeholders, for example our sales team.
– Priya Raman (Bengaluru), senior backend developer. Priya is responsible for the API and the database. She’s our go-to person for questions about data.
– Mateus Costa (São Paulo), frontend developer. Mateus owns the new shift-swap screen in the mobile app.
– Aiko Tanaka (Osaka), developer. Aiko works on both sides of the app, so she’s becoming a real full-stack developer.
– Oksana Kovalenko (Kraków), QA engineer. Oksana tests every change before it goes to production.
– Kwame Mensah (Accra), DevOps engineer. Kwame looks after our servers, staging and the build pipeline.
– Grace Mwangi (Nairobi), support lead. Grace brings customer problems to the team.
We also share a UX designer with the Payroll team. Lena will introduce you.
Your first two weeks
Your onboarding starts on Monday at 09:00 UTC with a short call with me. On Tuesday and Wednesday, you’ll pair with Mateus on the swap screen. In your second week, Mateus will hand over the swap settings page to you, and you’ll own it until the end of your contract.
Any questions before Monday? Write to me in the team chat. See you soon!
Sam
Tip · Engineering manager or tech lead? An engineering manager looks after people: one-to-ones, hiring and careers. A tech lead looks after the technical side: design, code quality and the big technical decisions. In small teams, one person sometimes does both jobs. To find your manager, ask Who do I report to? To find the person who makes the technical decisions, ask Who’s the tech lead?
1.4 Check the meaning
Exercise 1 · Match. Match each word or phrase (1–6) with its meaning (a–f).
- stakeholder
- onboarding
- QA engineer
- hand over
- go-to person
- report to
- the process of helping a new person start in a team
- to have someone as your manager
- the person everyone asks about a topic
- a person or group who is interested in a project or affected by it
- to give your work and the information about it to another person
- a person who tests software and checks its quality
Exercise 2 · True or false? Read Sam’s welcome page again. Is each sentence true or false?
- Nadia is a new full-time employee at Northbeam.
- Nadia’s manager at Northbeam is Sam.
- Priya is the best person to ask about data.
- The UX designer works only for the Rota team.
- Nadia will own the swap settings page from her first day.