What is your business analysis domain?

Agnosticism is critical. Requirements need to start out technology agnostic, a great BA is industry agnostic, and to do analysis well, you have to come from a domain and assumption agnostic mindset. At the consulting BA level, you even need to stay process agnostic: you need to be able to operate in an Agile environment as easily as you can in a waterfall one, and any hybrid variation in between. While the IIBA has six different core knowledge areas, a good BA needs to be competent in all six. If you can't walk into a project and pick up the thread of analysis regardless of business functional area, methodology, stage of the project, or industry, you're not a business analyst, you're a subject matter expert (SME).

We can say that Business Analyst should be domain agnostic but hardly ever a BA who is new in a domain will be as effective as the one who knows it. Try to look at the perspective where your domain is complex like medicine or oil and gas. Without the domain knowledge you can work easily on creating a system for appointment-scheduling with a doctor but it will be very hard to investigate how to calculate the efficency of the repairs on wells. Even if the logic is provided by the customer, it will take a huge amount of time to understand all the nuances without the domain knowledge.

As I have said earlier that Business Analyst is a Domain Agnostic role. Irrespective of your domain it is your BA concepts and Knowledge that makes you deliver the value. So as in my opinion Domain doesn't restrict Business Analysts.

In my experience business analyst or business analysis is a wide spread term and covers and touches every corner of the business including sales to project initiation to implementation and delivery.Business Analyst is considered to be the face of the customer.To gain the customer satisfaction first the business analyst to be satisfied and convinced.Business analysis starts from solutioning the business problem to the defining Scope of the project,handling Discovery call,identifying the risk mitigation strategies,project planning ,UAT and delivery. I am blessed to be part of Nexivo Consulting -Zoho,s Premium and the Number 1 partner in India for making me strong in this area.

In my view, the Business analyst position is such a versatile role that will require many sorts of skills such as great communication and presentation skills, critical thinking, project management, financial analysis, negotiation, math and coding abilities. Also, it’s essential to keep upgrading your skills with courses such as programming with Python to analyze big data queries and validate the feasibility of some projects. Lastly, the tools used will depend on the industry you will be working in and what will be your main duties since you may be using Excel, SQL, Tableau, or Python for analyzing, reporting and decision-making.

I agree domain plays a biggest chunk in guiding and asking questions to stakeholders as well as analysing best suited of situations. But, I believe someone from non- domain expert can bring in fresh perspectives to the table from user level sometimes. However, domain knowledge can be acquired gradually in the role once you are in the organisation.

The knowledge of business Domain enables you to think from customer perspective and enable to identify/quantify the 'value' of solution.

I would say my domain is creating business value and efficiency for an organisation...the BA competency is a combination of personal qualities, professional techniques or business knowledge and it is not a secret that during interview if you find BA with strong personal qualities they are most likely to secure the job as the professional techniques and business domain can be learnt. The most sought BAs work across domains and are usually excellent communicators, curious to learn and ask questions, open to feedback and have a Growth mindset.

When you recognize the industry you are in, you search for the primary objectives and start thinking how, as a BA, can you improve or add to what exists. As a BA, as long as you understand the sport you are playing and its rules, you can use your strategy skills to help your team/organization do/be better.

A clearly defined domain directs us towards acquiring all essential abilities and information to understand and interpret a?problem domain?from the viewpoint of stakeholders and beyond. Consider the scenario where a high street bank asks you to create a mobile patrol app with a vacant property inspection questionnaire. Your understanding of a financial organisation and your ability to assess the risk associated with their?vacant properties will determine?the quality and applicability of the questionnaire you design. Learning and researching commercial properties, staff operations, risk associated with banking operation during working and non-working hours etc then improves your expertise in the banking industry.

I have worked in several industries where the role of BA had different definitions. As long as you are using the core skills: communication, leadership, decision-making, analysis, to add to the organization, then you're performing well.

I have worked in various domains, from the beginning of my career. Starting with the Banking and Insurance domain, then clients' business-operating domains such as Oil and Gas, Sensors, Automotive, Broadcasting Services. If we have to identify a domain, we have to evaluate on all the work that we have done so far - what we have been thinking of while we were working and delivering value to various clients.

Its hard for a BA to stick to one domain unless your work is to maintain existing products tailored to serve a particular domain. However, in environments where ERPs and bespoke products are present the scope keep growing, this calls for vast learning.

Apart from the past experience,it is more about your passion which drives you to gain the business knowledge and technical skills.

Your business domain is the industry and business process you want to focus your career on. A financial BA working on SAP accounting systems will not be as effective working on areas outside their domain such as clinical trials, social media ad buying, robotics, AI, or distribution systems. The BA gains "credibility and trust" speaking to SMEs with the correct business terminology and understand the risks and priorities of the business owners and users.

Make a list of thing you try to learn and master, over time, you will become expert as well. Try not to restrict to communication, functional or technical. An expert might not have all the answer, but should be someone all rounder in certain area expert. Always be humble and not Bossy.

I think one of the most important thing to boss up and leve it up is by network with professionals, I experienced this many times through attend events, catch chats, social media interacting with them and seek mentorship for insights, their points of view can open doors in your mind. As well as pursuing formal education and certifications like CBAP can be a green flag above your career cause just preparing for such exam gives your skills a strong push towards professionalism. Build practical experience through diverse projects, honing communication, and interpersonal skills and don't forget sharing. Stay updated on industry tools and technologies. Actively seek feedback from your professional networks and focus on continuous improvement.

Besides getting actual knowledge and skills, it is also important to get latest news about your domain. The modern world is changing rapidly and various areas of business are undergoing changes. A business analyst must understand trends and patterns within the domain in order to better take context into account when making decisions.

Domain knowledge can always be improved, as the business is always changing over time. Connecting with the experts and discussing all the exploration options in a domain will help in developing domain knowledge.

Working in a variety of business fields, I constantly improve personally in each field through study groups, industry magazines, tutorials, and on-the-job training.

Regardless of where the BA ends up working, they must always be able to adapt. BA is not only in IT, it can be Banking, Mining, Energy or Government. Each of these organizations will have a different definition for BA and it's up to them to use their core skills to add to the organization's needs and vision. Always make sure to learn from the company's strategic thinkers as they contain the vision.

Adaptability is a vital trait for Business Analysts (BAs) irrespective of their work setting. BAs extend their expertise beyond Information Technology, venturing into sectors like Banking, Mining, Energy, and Government. In each sector, the role of a BA carries a distinct definition, requiring them to leverage their core skills to contribute meaningfully to the organization's goals and vision. Essential insights can be gained by learning from the strategic minds within the company, as they encapsulate the organizational vision.

In the quest to find new roles, I find that a lot of companies in ALL industries do not understand the role of a Business Analyst. Their requirements are just for system SMEs. True business analysis outcomes, therefore, have never been achieved in most of these companies since for ever.

-Business analyst: work with business to gather requirements Then systems ( business systems analyst) working with systems requirements But people always confuse 2

Business Analysis domains can be incredibly narrow or more generalist. My preference is to develop a re-usable suite of tools, techniques and behaviours that can be used on projects across different industries. It is unusual to work on the same type of project twice unless you are delivering for the same vendor, so having repeatable methods that can be deployed across different sector of industry means that you will always be in demand. It's also important not to be dogmatic about the role you fulfil, so a mix of technical skills, soft skills and generalist behaviours can help whatever projects you work on and organisations you work with.