One of the first things a business analyst should do when learning a new domain is to create a glossary.
Creating a glossary does two things. First, a glossary introduces you to the things, concepts, processes, acronyms of the domain. These definitions form the basis of domain knowledge.
The second thing a glossary does, which is almost as important, is it shows you which parts of the domain are well understood by the stakeholders and which parts are not.
When creating a glossary you may run into one or more of the following:
- Terms that have multiple definitions
- Terms that have different definitions for different stakeholders
- Terms that have ambiguous definitions
- Terms where the definition seems to change over time
- Terms where the definition is different depending on the context
- Multiple terms that mean the same thing
When you find any of these issues, that is where you need to dig deeper. Sometimes the business does not have a clear definition and you need to help them define their terms. Sometimes, the domain the terms are trying to describe is a tangled mess that needs to be untangled first.
In the end, after all the digging, there should be a clear definition for all terms that all stakeholders agree with.