There are specific skills and techniques we need to have in our tool kit as Business Analysts such as having the BA knowledge to perform  business analysis and the skills such as communication, listening, stakeholder management skills we need to deliver successfully in our role.

However, are these enough to be confident in the areas or business we find ourselves in?

What is domain knowledge:

In contrast to general or technical BA  knowledge, Domain knowledge means knowledge of a specific field, industry or business area. For example, you could be working as a Business Analyst within the financial services industry such as banks or insurance companies.

In order to have that confidence in delivering or getting involved in projects, especially as you will be interacting with stakeholders from various functions within the organisation, you will need to know what the function of the organisation is, what are their processes, who are their customers, what are the transactions taking place, what are the products, etc.

For example, in banks; you want to know about payment systems and processes, what is Barcs, Swift, etc. For the insurance domain, you want to know what the various insurance types are, what is the claims handling process, what is a policy, claims form, insurance or banking systems etc. 

Why Domain knowledge:

1. It’s an advantage for career transition: working in a non BA role but in a specific domain gives you the knowledge to be able to transition to the same domain as a Business Analyst
2. Application in projects: experience of specific domains will allow easy application of the knowledge onto related projects during business analysis.

How to gain domain knowledge

1. Leverage your current domain experience
2. Speak to someone in the specific industry – speak to heads of functions, introduce yourself and ask questions about what they do within their function
3. Google it – it’s less time consuming and free.
4. Focus on what you’re good at and don’t waste time on unrelated areas you’re not interested in
5. Do a course in the domain area – I’m a full believer in doing courses as they give you theoretical knowledge which you can go on to apply in your role as well as gain confidence in the domain area.

In conclusion, having the general and domain knowledge is key to a successful BA career. Talk about my interview experience here?

You should have an overall knowledge of the business as well as your BA knowledge.