Tech-writer-to-business-analyst thread?

[Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net>]

I've just read through some archived tw-to-ba threads, and I would like 
to reopen the discussion with some followup questions.

In a post from January 2007u, David Eason said (among many informative 
comments):

"BA's have special skills with project
management, workflow processes, business modeling, and software such as
UML (uniform modeling language), use cases, entity-relationship diagrams
(ERDs) and relational database concepts, object-oriented technologies
(Rational Rose, object-oriented analysis, object-oriented design,
object-oriented programming), and the systems development lifecycle
(SDLC).

"Documentation and Visio expertise won't even get you in the door.
However, having BA skills, such as requirements engineering, workflow
processing, process modeling, use-case writing, and some other
documentation-related tools can augment technical writing . . ."

I am trying to figure out if I would be good at business analysis; I 
enjoy tech writing but have also always been interested in the broader 
business goals of the companies I've worked for. For what it's worth, I 
think it's going to be important to have a broader resume in the years 
to come, since I think we're in for a hard time economically.

I'm about to start taking our BAs out for coffee one by one to interview 
them about what they do and what their background skills are, to see if 
this might be a good transition for me to make.

I've come across some online courses that might be useful, if I decide 
to make this transition. Has anyone heard of the Villanova online BA 
certificate course? Any ideas about how I could find out if their 
certificate is respected? Boston University also has courses.

Has anyone here worked as a BA in the past, or does anyone here combine 
that work with tech writing?

Any and all suggestions welcome.

--Nancy



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