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Subject:TWs and BAs From:Catie Easley <ceasley -at- IS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 1 Apr 1998 09:31:59 -0600
I'm in the process of documenting how tech writers should interact with
the other departments in our company. Management may not agree wholly
with my plan, but I do have a say in how I think the TW role should play
out. I am, however, in a bit of a quandary of how I should map the tech
writer role with the business analyst role. In the past, I've worked
with the architect interviewing clients and writing analysis and
requirements documents (in essence, we were the BA). That concept worked
well -- it was fun, I was well informed on the application and the
business background, and I had the opportunity to write.
BA is a relatively new position at our company (the BA worked for our
company as an off-site consultant for three years and is now back
full-time). The BA feels he should be doing 90%+ of the writing of the
concept, requirements, and analysis documents. That leaves me writing
user guides -- not nearly as challenging. I'm not sure I want to be a
BA, but I want to have some ownership of the documents being produced.
Has this happened to anyone else out there? How did you handle it? How
do BAs and TWs interact in other companies? How do you think they should
interact?
Thanks for your help.
Catie Easley
Senior Technical Writer
KeyTech LLC
ceasley -at- is -dot- com
