RE: Is this a typical technical writing environment?

["Bill Swallow" <wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com>]

::: do all
::: technical writers have to chase the developers (or whomever 
::: they write for) for information?  

Yes, and no.

::: For example, I write a manuals for web applications, and 
::: today I found out
::: that an entire new page has been added to the application.  
::: No one bothered
::: to tell me, but they did bother to ask why it isn't in the 
::: manual.  I wasn't
::: told that it's my responsibility to spend my days going 
::: through the system
::: looking for new pages, but apparently it is!  Is that just 
::: the way it works in this business?

Was the new page in the spec? Was it brought up in a development meeting
that it would be added? Did QA know it was coming? If so, why were you out
of the loop?

::: Will I always be the last to know about new developments?  
::: Or is this
::: something that varies from job to job?  Do any of you deal 
::: with this?  How?

Lucy, you need to be proactive, not reactive. Go to development meetings.
Drop by developers' desks a few times a week to see what's going on. Be
personable. Let them see that you're trying to be proactive. And definitely
read the specs, and ask why new features outside the scope of the spec are
being added if that's what's happening.

Bill Swallow
wswallow "at" nycap "dot" rr "dot" com