Full Stack JavaScript Strategies

Chapter 30. Understanding the Business Domain

One thing that will set you apart is deeply understanding the business domain you are developing an app for. Any dev can write software to meet requirements, but when you understand how a specific domain works, you’ll be able to make better-informed decisions. The domains you may encounter could be industry specific, such as advertising and media, energy, government, financial services, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, logistics, retail, telecommunications, and travel. Domains could also include multiple industries or no industry at all.

A business domain expert is someone who deeply understands the industry they work in and many of the intricacies and problems in it. You’ll find that often the domain experts aren’t the people who create the product requirements or the devs who build the product. They’re the people more on the business side who have seen a gap in the industry and are building a solution with help from others, like you. A good example of a domain expert is someone who has worked in health care for years and who has seen the problems that staff and patients deal with.

In this chapter, I’ll go over:

• Domain-specific knowledge

• App needs for different business domains

• Architectural and system design decisions

• How to learn from other teams

• Documentation

You don’t have to be that person who’s worked in an industry for years to become a domain expert. But you do have to have a genuine interest in learning ...