Lesson 7: Editing And Reviews
Why reviews are important
Technical writers get their information in a number of different ways. Many software products are described in specification documents well before their first line of code is written. These documents serve as a starting point for everyone working on the product - developers, technical writers, and testers alike. Often cross-functional teams have ongoing meetings to access progress and discuss changes to the product. Developers, product managers, and other involved parties send emails back and forth containing product information and suggestions.
As a technical writer it's your job to be a fly on the wall at as many of these conversations as possible. Get yourself on every email list you can. Get invited to those boring meetings. If you're lucky, you can also be an early alpha or beta tester of the product and see how it works first hand.
Even if you get a constant stream of emails, go to three meetings every week, and get the chance to use the product to your heart's content, there will be last minute changes to the product. There may be earlier changes that you don't know about or that never came up in any of the meetings. Some developers may not be forthcoming with changes or your product manager may forget that you need to know a particular piece of information. Even if you have all of the information, you may have misinterpreted something or not fully understood everything you read or heard. The review process is a check built into the documentation process to catch all of those omissions and changes and mistakes.
