Question: > 
> **Possible Duplicate:**  
> 
> [How important is Domain knowledge vs. Technical knowledge?](https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/51268/how-important-is-domain-knowledge-vs-technical-knowledge) 
> 
> 
> 

I often hear from my colleagues and sometimes from interviewers that,

> 
> "There is nothing so great in having excellent programming knowledge.
>  One must gain the domain knowledge as the 1st priority. If you have a
>  good domain knowledge, then writing code for that is not a big deal."
> 
> 
> 

(Here domain knowledge is something related to area you are working in. For example, I work in telecom domain, someone might be in Finance or Pharma or Web development or Embedded and so on.)

I disagree with above passage and think exactly opposite. In my career *till now*, I have seldom missed any deadline for bugfix or feature enhancement. I have kept changing the domains (within telecom) but stuck with learning the programming techniques. Though I might be wrong.

**Questions**:

* Is my current approach correct ?
* Given a choice between domain or programming (with limited time)
which one should be chosen ?
* Is there a good future for a person, who is primarily a very good
coder but not so great in a domain (of course initially) ?

I ask this because, I feel that every domain ultimately boil down to code sea in which one has to dive!

Answer: 
Excellent question.

A programmer does not need domain knowledge. A *good*, well-rounded programmer should have the ability to interpret domain-specific requirements and obtain domain knowledge to solve problems, but in my opinion should promptly forget that information.

You have a choice - do you want to be a subject matter expert, or a technical expert? 

If you want to work at one company, or stick to a specific industry, then gather that domain knowledge and climb the rungs. You'll soon shift from being a programmer to being someone who works with the rest of the business, liasing between management / marketing (who have business requirements) and the technical team (who just know how to translate technical problems into code). You'll be the guy who sees the requirements document and thinks "Hey, they forgot about scenario X when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars". You are a **subject matter expert**.

If you want to have core technical skills, you avoid domain knowledge and keep growing your technical skills. This doesn't mean you should be belligerent and refuse to learn. It just means that gathering this knowledge is not your core focus. There are enough technical challenges in software engineering without focusing on business knowledge if you choose to pursue them. Become a solution architect; drive your organisations technical capabilities. You are a **technical expert**.

It's a legitimate choice. I choose technical expert every time. It means I can work anywhere, and never be sidetracked into work I don't want to do.
If you wish to remain only a programmer, working for a company, then domain knowledge is not necessary but if you have, it is good. If you are a part of a team and you have a program manager, then he should possess little domain knowledge. In your case, you gain a basic domain knowledge while working on a project. For example, if you are involved in the development of a product in Telecom domain, then after a certain period of time, you do get a basic knowledge of the Telecom Services Provider.

From my experience, if you run a company or is a part of business development process, then definitely you should have a domain knowledge. You should also have a knowledge of your competitors.

Anyhow, you should keep your eyes open because you won't remain a programmer life long. In future you may lead projects.

**Edited**

And also, highly scalable products are possible only when you have excellent domain knowledge.