Allied Forces: Project Managers and Business Analysts

  Business Intelligence   Strategy   PM Network  

Project managers and business analysts don't always see eye to eye. Project managers focus on delivering a defined scope on schedule and budget, while business analysts look to set the right requirements and improve the end results. Where a business analyst sees a profitable opportunity for a project to pivot, the project manager might see the risk involved with making changes mid-stream.

Although these different skills complement each other and lead to impressive project outcomes, competing priorities can cause problems. Nearly 70 percent of organizations report that collaboration between project managers and business analysts is essential for project success—but only 46 percent believe the two groups currently collaborate well, according to PMI's 2014 Pulse of the Profession^®: Requirements Management—A Core Competency for Project and Program Success.

And the need to build a productive relationship will only grow stronger. More than half of organizations will have an increased demand for business analysts over the next three to five years, according to the Pulse report.

“A mutual respect is really important,” says Alan Chute, PMP, a former business analyst who now is a project manager at the Insolvency Service in Dublin, Ireland. “It's important that each person understands the role and the constraints that the other …

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