Business knowledge: Domain knowledge, Subject matter expertise, Principals of IT, Organisation structures and design, Supplier management
These aren’t my words, they come straight from the British Computer Society (BCS) course book for the ISEB Foundation in Business Analysis certificate.
Paul, Yeates, Candle; โBusiness Analysisโ, Second Edn, BCS. page 17.
Notable extracts from the subsequent pages are:
Domain knowledge
“a good general understanding of the business domain, or sector”
“It enables you to talk sensibly with the business people”
“It will help you understand what would and would not be acceptable or useful in the business domain”
Subject matter expertise
“This takes domain knowledge to a lower level [โฆ] important in order to establish credibility”
“Business analysts may be specialists in particular business domains, with a strong and detailed understanding of the subject area, who can pinpoint very quickly areas for improvement”
Principles of IT
“so many business analyst projects result in the use of IT in some way, a general understanding of the field seems necessary”
“the business analyst can understand the technical terms used by IT specialists”
“they should also possess an understanding of IT fundamentals [โฆ]: how computers work, systems-development lifecycles, trends and new opportunities that IT brings”
The British Computer Society (BCS) Business Analyst training was/is the defacto standard in the UK, particularly for those entering the profession via more technically oriented roles.
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