RE: Is this a typical technical writing environment?

["Lippincott, Rick" <Rick -dot- Lippincott -at- flir -dot- com>]

Lucy Connor asked:

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?

Frequently, yes. It does vary from job to job, but what you've described
is not an isolated incident.

Much of the advice already given is true: you need to attend meetings,
follow up with developers, integrate yourself into their process so that
you know as much as possible about what they're doing.

Sometimes, though, this isn't enough. And some of the suggestions may
not be possible. For example, sitting with the group is a good idea, but
there may not be space there. 

What you have to keep in mind is that when dealing with engineers,
you're frequently dealing with a mind that works entirely differently
than a tech writer's mind. The priorities as seen by the engineer are
sometimes so different that it's as though we're speaking different
languages. Case in point, you mentioned added menu screens. I had a
similar situation once, and when I mentioned to the engineer "This is
the type of information I'm looking for when I ask you if anything has
changed in the software." The response was an incredulous "You wanted to
know about THIS?"

Or, to put it another way, how many tech writers would do the following:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3451207.stm

I mean, this opens a -whole- can of worms regarding nomenclature.
Although the last lines of the story say that the son of "2.0" would be
"3.0," I think you can make a fair case that "3.0" could be used just as
well on a sibling. 

--Rick Lippincott
  FLIR Systems
  Billerica, MA