RE: Help on Coordination between Engineers and Technical Witers

["John Posada" <JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com>]

>user documentation), but they seem to 
>concern more the future implementation 
>than the future documentation. 

Of COURSE they do. You are there to find out about what the developers
are doing...the developers are not there to find out what you are doing

>I've decided to ask the project leaders 
>for separate meetings, related to the 
>project documentation, if necessary. 

You're missing the point. If you sit around discussing the
documentation, you'll have an incestuous situation. You need fresh
information about what you are writing ABOUT, not about what you are
writing. 

>I want to ask just another quick question - How 
>do inform engineers that you have finished a piece 
>of documentation. Is there a formal way for this. 
>Here, a technical writer is supposed to post 
>messages into the project's discussion forum.

HEY! Engineers...the document is finished. Wanna see it?

Seriously...the formal way is the way it's done at the place at which
it's done. Some do by email to a group email list. Some by notifying a
manager and letting that manager notify as appropriate. Some by posting
it to a system and letting the system automatically send out
notifications. Some by simply uploading to a documentation system and
having the system then do things with it. There is no "correct" way it's
done. 

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Isogon Corporation
http://www.isogon.com