I have been working as BA defining use cases and functional
specifications for software development for the last 3 years, however
my exposure to programming is very limited.
By searching on the web for a UML certification I was directed to thsi
forum which by the way is great, the certification looks great but by
reading the thread I am not quite sure if this certification requires
hands on programming experience or not, I wouldn't like to waste my
time trying to get something that would be extremely hard b/c of my
lack of programming experience.Here is one guide which can be real help..
In my opinion, the UML
certification is a bit 'over-kill' for BA. As a BA, you are more
concern in capturing user requirements. You will be using a subset of
UML artifacts like use case diagrams, writing use cases, class diagrams
for conceptual perspective, interaction diagrams etc. Of course,
knowing how to read package diagrams, statechart diagrams, component
diagrams and deployment diagrams will help you to understand the system
better.
Although the UML certification does not require any programming
knowledge, it will focus a lot on software design and design patterns.
Unless you feel comfortable in learning all these technical skills that
are beyond the scope of BA, my advice is don't bother. You should
persue certification specific for business analysts ...
I Hope this guide will help in knowing the business analysis practises better...