Business analysts typically work closely alongside subject matter experts, and it's natural that domain knowledge gets picked up along the way. In fact, many BAs are like sponges, carefully capturing and cataloguing information that might be useful at some point in the future. This selective curating of business knowledge is a key skill, after all a piece of seemingly insignificant information that a stakeholder mentions today might be crucial to a project tomorrow. 

Over time, particularly if a BA has worked in the same (or similar) contexts for a period of time, they might even start to feel like they are partly a domain expert themselves. This can be useful, it can mean that conversations with stakeholders can be more succinct as there's a shared understanding of complex terminology. However, it has a darker side too… 

Lack of Perspectives

Ironically, when a BA is new to a domain and when they know the least, they'll tend to ask wide-ranging and fundamental questions. These might initially be perceived as 'daft' questions, but in reality they are not daft at all. Questions such as "when you say customer, who do you mean?" might sound like it'll have an obvious answer… but it'll often have quite a complicated answer. The answer might even vary depending on who you ask. 

Let's take an example. Imagine reengineering a payroll process. A stakeholder says that "Well, a key customer requirement is to have transparency on how much tax is deducted from salary".  In your head, you've probably got an idea on who the 'customer' is. But could there be others? In this case, the stakeholder might be referring to: 

• The employee (who receives a salary) 
• The tax authority (who receives data and tax payments) 
• The employer's finance team 
• Someone else… 

Of course, if the process is to be useful and successful, it is very likely that a balance of different perspectives will need to be considered. A BA who has spent a significant time in one business area might find themselves aligned to that area's perspective, and might find that inadvertent bias creeps in. Or, they might find themselves going straight to the detail, instead of asking the fundamental 'daft' questions that help to create so much clarity.  

It's All About Balance

As with so much in the BA world, it is all about maintaining a healthy balance. There is nothing inherently wrong with gaining domain knowledge, in fact it is useful to have some. Yet the key is to have 'just enough' to be useful without becoming bogged down. It's also important for BAs to realise that they themselves aren't subject matter experts. Working on a regulatory project might mean that you have a good level of knowledge of one piece of legislation (at a particular point in time).  But knowledge goes stale quickly, and in a year's time some of that knowledge might be incorrect. It might be tempting to think "I don't need to ask the compliance officer this, as I remember the answer from last time", but things may well have changed. 

In many ways, what is more important than knowing detailed business information is being able to quickly elicit and validate it. This involves having enough information of the domain and stakeholder landscape to be able to formulate appropriate questions, and know who to put those questions to. It also involves seeking multiple perspectives from multiple stakeholders. In fact, on large scale change, a potential warning sign can be if there is no conflict at all. If everyone is in agreement, it is worth asking "have we missed someone's perspective here?" or "is there a question that we haven't asked yet that we need to ask?".   

Step Back: The Need for Business Analysts to Think Holistically

All of this reinforces the need for BAs to step back, seek differing perspectives and think holistically. Picking up information and knowledge along the way is useful, but the focus should be on capturing 'just enough' information, while maintaining relationships with key stakeholders. It is important to avoid relying on old knowledge that may be out of date, else we might end up accelerating in the wrong direction with assumed confidence! 

Looking to update your BA toolkit? Check out AssistKD's wide choice of business analysis courses.