Like most good questions, I think the answer is “it depends.” Someone who practices business analysis “at a higher level” can be just as effective regardless of the technology being used. Having an understanding of technology helps you do better analysis, but it is not a prerequisite.

For business analysts, “domain expertise” usually applies to the relevant industry, not the technology used. For example, a BA could have domain expertise in the insurance industry, and be familiar with actuarial tables, licensing issues, and compensation systems. Or a BA could have domain expertise in the telecommunications industry, and understand the importance of QoS measures, know that network hardware and capacity are managed separately, and perceive the importance to the industry of VoIP.

Any business domain can be the focus of a business analyst. Think of it as becoming an expert on the industry – how do companies do their jobs, what are the market forces that dominate their company’s behaviors, and how do the problems / processes generally manifest in common ways across companies. What is valuable, essentially.

Thanks for you valuable inputs. Is Business Analyst profile effected by technological change in IT, can an IT business analyst (.net) be a good SAP business analyst? what is domain expertise & why need of domain expertise for business analyst? What are the different domains, business analyst can focus on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analyst
the defination doesn’t help an MBA-IT person to choose its domian.

The top priority definitely seems to become good at writing and maintaining requirements / rules. Then having a framework/tools that make this more efficient and repeatable. After those things, we can introduce a feedback loop that helps us improve at doing the job.

Basically the same sequencing as CMMI levels.

Scott