As I transitioned from developer to project manager/business analyst, it had always been the case that I participated to some extent (if not extensively) in the development tasks of a project.  Lately, I've challenged myself on the value of doing so.

The thought-process went like this: "I am valuable as a PM/BA because of my technical background; therefore, I should do all I can to retain as much of the knowledge as well as keep up with new technologies to continue to be valuable."

What resulted in wanting to be a part of all aspects of the project including managing, controlling, designing, and developing was that I did a lot of things but excelled at nothing.  Multitasking is a myth, but that's a discussion for another thread.  When you have a limited amount of time to dedicate to doing your job, spreading that time thin to perform very different responsibilities is actually detrimental to the quality of your output as well as a hindrance to your growth in any of the professions.

So in my latest project, I've dedicated myself to enhancing my skills as a project manager with business analysis as a focused subset of knowledge.  Giving up on ever becoming a great developer allows me to focus on being a top-tier BA.  In my case, it's worked out quite nicely. 

Does anyone else face this issue? What are your thoughts?

~Kevin~

Hi Kevin,

The nature of most generalists is that they are "jacks of all trades but masters of none".  There are very few folks who can be excellent Project Manager, excellent Business Analyst, and excellent Developer all at the same time.  There are instances, usually in small companies and projects, where the developer also does the PM and BA work but that is not very common and not easy.

I think that you should identify your "primary" role/focus and run with it.  For example, if you choose to be a "Business Analyst" then you will probably ensure first and foremost that your business analysis skills are top notch.  Having that said, you will still continue to have a certain amount of technical knowledge - you will probably focus more on key technical concepts (i.e. Service Oriented Architecture) as opposed to as specific technology such as J2EE or Asp.net.  Also - you will always need project management skills since you will have to manage your own tasks or even manage the tasks of a team if you become an analysis manager.

I'm pretty much in that boat.   I've started out as a developer and then moved into Business/Systems Analysis.  I still maintain a certain level of understanding of the current technical trends and key concepts - just enough for me to be able to challenge the development team when they claim that certain things "can't be done".  At the same time I worked on improving my management/execution skills and now I manage a large team of business/systems analysts.

- Adrian