Specialise or Generalise

As a BA - specialise or be a generalist?

To help decide, I would look at this from the following four perspectives
Industry
Systems/Technology
Customer
Market trends and opportunities available

INDUSTRY
Do you have a particular industry you want to solely work in?
Does the industry offer the career path/future you are looking for?
Is a particular industry going through rapid growth that might offer opportunities?

Industries themselves can be quite broad, so also ask yourself, are you interested in any particular technology or opportunities within a business?

SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY
Do you enjoy working or want to on a particular system or technology? For example:
In the ITSM space, there is a lot of growth and opportunity working on ServiceNow projects, similarly with CRM and Salesforce, AWS/Azure for cloud etc.

CUSTOMER
What type of customer do you enjoy working with the most?
Corporate, retail, end-user etc.

MARKET TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Is there a particular trend in the types of advertised roles and opportunities. For example, I would say there is a long-term potential in infrastructure, cyber-security and cloud projects.

In my experience, working as a BA has allowed me to jump across different industries, thus allowing me to get exposure to different systems and customer types. This in-turn has allowed me to work with different stakeholders and customers, learning the different types of requirements and nuances that come from those.

So ….. You may be wondering, ‘Faisal, what do you prefer? To be a specialist BA or a generalist’?

I’m leaning more towards being a generalist, because I feel there is flexibility in regards to the above listed points. My opinion and feelings may change in the future and I’ll make sure to write a post about that as well.

"Jack of all trades, master of none, or though oftentimes better than master of one"

Have a great day