Re: Technical writing in the development process

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

No, it's the standard definition of a badly managed development 
process.  Unfortunately, it seems to me that it's becoming more
frequent, especially in products like software where manufacturers
figure that they can ship all sorts of <insert expletive here> and
then just post "bulletins" and "hotfixes" every couple of days 
instead of actually performing some sort of planning and testing 
before they ship to ensure the product really works and its users
can figure out how to make it work.

You can try to develop strategies for "justifying your existence"
and your place on the development team (I have many times),
but ultimately, the answer to the question "who gives you the 
right" should properly be the name of someone whose instruction
the person asking the question is bound to respect.  If it isn't, you 
need to be prepared to face the possibility that those who hired 
you really had no business bringing in a writer because they 
weren't prepared to define his or her role on the team.  

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Diane Haugen" <WhiskeyCreek -at- wcdd -dot- com>