5 exercises on the verb collocations developers use when wrapping up their working day. Choose the right verb for the right context.
Key verb patterns
update the ticket — add progress notes (not "close" or "edit")
write the standup update — async teams write, not just speak
push a WIP commit — save unfinished work to the remote branch
document a finding — create a proper written artefact for the team
hand off to the on-call team — the formal SRE shift transition phrase
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Before finishing for the day, a developer adds a progress comment and changes the status on their Jira issue. Which is the natural collocation for this action?
Update the ticket — the natural collocation for adding progress information:
Update the ticket is the natural collocation for adding progress notes, status changes, or comments to an issue in Jira, GitHub Issues, Linear, or any project management tool.
Why not the others?
close the ticket — specific action meaning to mark the ticket as done or resolved; if the work is unfinished, you do not close it
edit the ticket — implies changing the original description or title, not adding new progress information
mark the ticket — partial collocation; "mark as done" or "mark as resolved" are natural, but "mark the ticket" without a complement is incomplete
Ticket lifecycle collocations:
update the ticket / add a comment to the ticket
change the status / move the ticket to "In Review"
close the ticket / resolve the ticket (when done)
reopen the ticket (when a resolved issue recurs)
Best practice for end-of-day ticket updates: what you did today, what you found (blockers, discoveries), and what the next step is. This creates a paper trail and enables async collaboration across time zones.
2 / 5
A developer on an async-first team writes their daily update at the end of the day, to be ready for the team before the next morning. Which phrase is most natural?
Write the standup update — the natural collocation for async standups:
Write the standup update is the most natural collocation, especially for async teams using tools like Geekbot, Slack standup bots, Range, or Notion where the daily update is a written artefact rather than a spoken verbal update.
Why not the others?
post the standup update — also natural in a Slack context ("I posted my standup") but implies the sending action, not the creation action. Both "write" and "post" are correct; "write" emphasises creation.
do the standup update — too vague; "do" is a weak verb here
prepare the standup update — overly formal for a short daily update; "prepare" suggests more effort than a standup warrants
Standup update format (three questions):
Yesterday: What did you complete?
Today: What will you work on?
Blockers: Is anything blocking your progress?
Related: write the standup, async standup, daily update, Geekbot, Slack standup bot. Async standups are common in distributed and remote-first engineering teams.
3 / 5
A developer is halfway through a feature and needs to stop for the day. They want to save their progress to the remote branch so it is not lost and can be accessed from another machine. Which phrase is most natural?
Push a WIP commit — save unfinished work to the remote branch:
Push a WIP commit is the natural end-of-day action. WIP (Work In Progress) commits are deliberately unfinished snapshots — they let you save progress to a remote branch so the work is safe, accessible from another machine, and visible to teammates if needed.
Why not the others?
save a WIP commit — "save" describes a local action; you save (commit) locally, then push remotely. End-of-day safety requires pushing, not just saving locally.
create a WIP commit — "create" describes making the commit object; it doesn't include the push step. Technically accurate but incomplete for the end-of-day goal.
store a WIP commit — not a natural collocation in git vocabulary
WIP commit conventions:
Prefix the commit message: WIP: authentication flow or chore: WIP save point
GitHub: open a Draft PR to signal the branch is not ready for review
Some teams use git stash for very short interruptions, but WIP commits are preferred for overnight saves
Morning follow-up: squash or amend the WIP commit before the work is ready for review.
4 / 5
After spending the afternoon debugging an unusual issue, a developer writes a detailed write-up in Confluence so the team can benefit from what was learned. Which collocation fits best?
Document a finding — the most complete and professional collocation:
Document a finding is the most formal and complete collocation. It implies creating a proper written artefact — a Confluence page, GitHub issue comment, README note, or wiki entry — that can be found, referenced, and used by others later. Documentation is a professional deliverable, not just a note.
Why not the others?
note a finding — implies a brief, informal record; a note might be a Slack message or a line in a personal doc
record a finding — valid and precise, but more associated with data capture (recording sensor readings, recording a metric); "document" implies richer, structured content
log a finding — "log" implies a time-stamped entry (like a server log or a support ticket); it is less associated with knowledge-sharing documentation
Document collocations in engineering:
document the root cause / document your findings / document the investigation
document the architecture / document the API
"I documented the root cause in Confluence — see the linked page."
the findings are documented in the post-mortem / in the incident report
Engineering culture best practice: if you spent more than 2 hours debugging something unusual, document what you found.
5 / 5
At the end of their shift, a developer briefs the overnight on-call engineer about current incidents, recent deployments, and known risks. Which phrase is most natural in SRE/DevOps contexts?
Hand off to the on-call team — the standard DevOps/SRE shift transition phrase:
Hand off to the on-call team is the standard phrase in DevOps, SRE, and support engineering. "Handoff" (compound noun) or "hand off" (verb phrase) is the formal transfer of responsibility and context between shifts or teams.
Why not the others?
transfer to the on-call team — formal and correct, but more often used for transferring ownership of a project or ticket, not a live shift transition
give to the on-call team — too informal and vague; doesn't carry the connotation of structured knowledge transfer
pass to the on-call team — informal and understood in conversation, but not the professional term used in runbooks and SRE documentation
incident handoff — transfer of an active incident to the next shift
A good handoff includes: open alerts, recent deployments, known risks, ongoing incidents, and any context the incoming engineer needs to stay safe overnight.