Talking About Progress and Blockers
In daily stand-ups, precision matters more than complexity. Avoid vague filler like "I am doing some work on it" — it doesn't tell your team anything useful and sounds less confident than it needs to.
"I finished the API integration yesterday."
Clear, past tense, specific.
"I'm currently working on the login flow — should be done by end of day."
Status + expected completion.
"I'm blocked on this until I hear back from the design team."
Names the blocker explicitly.
Explaining Technical Issues to Non-Technical Stakeholders
This is where many technically strong professionals lose credibility — not because they don't understand the problem, but because they explain it in a way that confuses or alarms a non-technical audience. The skill is translating technical accuracy into business impact — what's broken, what it affects, and when it'll be fixed.
"The endpoint is throwing a 500 error because of a null reference exception in the payment service."
"There's a bug affecting payments right now. We've found the cause and expect a fix within the hour."
Coaching Tip
When I work with technical professionals, I ask them to explain the issue without naming the technology for the first thirty seconds. Start with the business impact, then the cause, then the options — your expertise will sound clearer, not less technical.
Pushing Back on Unrealistic Deadlines
These phrases let you push back professionally without simply saying "no" or over-promising and under-delivering later.
"That timeline is tight — realistically, I'd need [X] to do it properly without cutting corners."
Honest and specific.
"I can get a working version by Friday, but the full feature will need until next week."
Offers a partial win.
"If we want to hit that date, we'd need to deprioritise [Y]."
Makes the trade-off explicit.
Code Review and Feedback Language
Framing feedback as questions and suggestions, rather than direct corrections, matches the collaborative tone expected in most English-speaking dev teams.
"This looks good overall — one suggestion: could we simplify this function?"
Positive opener, then a soft suggestion.
"Nice approach. Have you considered edge cases like [X]?"
Builds on the work rather than critiquing it.
"This works, but it might cause issues at scale — want to talk through an alternative?"
Raises a concern without dismissing the work.
Sprint Reviews and Stakeholder Demos
Structure updates as: what was delivered → what was learned or delayed → what's next. Stakeholders remember structure far more than detail.
"This sprint, we delivered [feature] and fixed [number] bugs."
Lead with delivery.
"We ran into an unexpected complexity with [X], which pushed back [Y] slightly."
Acknowledge a delay without dwelling on it.
"Next sprint, our focus is on [priority]."
Forward-looking close.
Strong technical English isn't about knowing more jargon — you likely already know more terms than you use. It's about using plain, structured language around the technical core, so both engineers and non-technical stakeholders trust what you're telling them.
Anna Baran
Cambridge CELTA Certified English Coach · Business English Specialist
Last updated: 15 November 2025