Learning a new domain as an IT business analyst
It’s not just about learning tools and techniques
Go to any IT business analyst (BA) blog or training course to find out the most important skill for a BA and they’ll always concentrate on the tools and techniques that a BA should master. They talk about the soft skills — the negotiation techniques, the art of eliciting requirements, the documentation styles, the knowledge of methodologies etc. They talk about tools for wire-framing, SQL skills, etc. This isn’t wrong.
But why don’t we talk about the business domain? Most conversations that I have seen online point to the fact that a BA could learn domain knowledge on the fly if they are good with the techniques and that domain specific knowledge should not be a hindrance for a BA to switch.
But do the hiring companies agree to this theory? I can’t say for everyone and every region and every country, but a lot of them prefer candidates having prior domain experience. Not all of them, but a lot of them do.
If you have worked in, say, the travel domain for some years and want to switch to the banking domain, sometimes your lack of banking domain knowledge may hamper you. OK, this post is not written to settle this debate. But rather to find out ways to learn about a new domain.
I have gone a bit too far without…
