There is a moment in every technology professional's career when raw technical ability reaches its limit. The code compiles. The system functions. And yet something is failing — a proposal rejected, a project mismanaged, a client left confused, a team fractured by mistrust. What is missing, almost invariably, is the capacity to communicate.
Communications for ICT by David Tuffley addresses that gap with the quiet authority of someone who has spent years watching brilliant technologists undermine themselves through poor writing, muddled argument, and cultural obliviousness. This is not a grammar guide. It is not a corporate writing manual. It is a comprehensive education in the full spectrum of professional communication as practised in the world of information and communications technology — and it is essential reading for anyone who wants to move from competent to indispensable.
The book opens where it must: with the question of professional ethics. Before one word is written or spoken, the ICT professional operates within a code of conduct that shapes every interaction. Tuffley grounds this in the Australian Computer Society's framework, but the principles — honesty, competence, the primacy of public interest — are universal. In a field that touches every aspect of modern life, the ethical technologist is not optional. It is the baseline.
From there, the book builds methodically and practically. University students learn how to structure and submit assignments that actually demonstrate what they know. Practising professionals discover the architecture of effective reports — how to design them, populate them, and present them to audiences whose time and patience are finite. The chapter on technical communication process is a masterclass in disciplined thinking: how to establish objectives, analyse your audience, organise your ideas, draft, revise, and deliver. It is the kind of framework that, once internalised, transforms the way you approach every writing task for the rest of your career.
Persuasion receives its own rigorous treatment. Tuffley draws on classical argumentation theory — inductive and deductive reasoning, Toulmin logic, the Aristotelian triad — and translates it into practical strategies for the technology context. How do you make the business case for a project? How do you write a proposal that wins? How do you argue your position without alienating your audience? These are power skills not soft skills.
The chapters on user documentation and software project documentation are among the most practically useful in the book — a detailed, step-by-step methodology for producing materials that actually serve their users, rather than merely satisfying a box-ticking exercise. Documentation tool support extends this into the digital realm.
International communication opens up an often-neglected dimension. In a globalised industry where teams span continents and clients span cultures, understanding Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Trompenaars' frameworks is not academic indulgence — it is competitive advantage. Misreading a negotiating partner's silence or directness can cost far more than a failed project.
High-performance teams receive the treatment they deserve. Tuffley examines the characteristics of legendary project groups — from the Manhattan Project to Lockheed's Skunk Works — and extracts the principles that separate the great from the merely functional. Trust, interdependence, shared purpose, inspired leadership: these are not platitudes here. They are documented phenomena.
The book closes with a meditation on the ethical technologist in a world reshaped by networked intelligence — a closing argument for the kind of thoughtful, humane, self-aware practitioner that the industry desperately needs.
Communications for ICT is the book that bridges the gap between what universities teach and what careers actually demand.
David Tuffley PhD is lecturer and researcher at Griffith University in Australia. David is a Software Engineer, though his interests range widely across Psychology, Anthropology, Literature, Philosophy, History, Design and Architecture. David has been an academic since 1999 teaching a range of courses including technical communication and professional issues in computing. During that time he has been an Software Engineering Institute-authorized CMMI Instructor, and an active consultant working with industry partners to improve their software and systems development capabilities. For 15 years before academia David was a consultant for public and private sector IT clients in Australia and the United Kingdom. David's focus has been on technical writing, business analysis and model-based process improvement. He combines theory and practice in a focussed and disciplined way that has proved effective for solving problems for clients.
