Throwaway account here. Recently our sysadmin sent us the following email (I removed the names): Hi, I had a situation yesterday (not mentioning names) when I had to perform a three way md5 checksum verification over the phone, more than once. If we can stick to the same standards then this will save any confusion if you are ever asked to repeat something over the phone or in the office for clarification. This is of particular importance when trying to speak or say this over the phone … m4f7s29gsd32156ffsdf … that’s really difficult to get right on a bad line. The rule is very simple: 1) Speak in blocks of 4 characters and continue until the end. The recipient can read back or ask for verification on one of the blocks. 2) Use the same language! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenetic_alphabet#NATO Myself, xxx and a few others I know all speak the NATO phonetic alphabet (aka police speak) and this makes it so much easier and saves so much time. If you want to learn quickly then all you really need is A to F and 0 to 9. 0 to 9 is really easy, A to F is only 6 characters to learn. Could you tell me if forcing the developers to learn NATO alphabet is a good practise, or if there are ways (and which ways) to avoid being in such a situation?