Project Management

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Do we need more business analysts or project managers in next 10 years?

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Ehsan Eslami Lead Project Controls| Metrolinx Montreal, Quebec, Canada
There are a bunch of articles out there to differentiate business analysts from project managers. As opposed to them, there are many articles also which mention their similarities. Regardless of their similarities or differences, are we going to need more business analysts or project managers with considering all incoming new technologies and businesses? Or the positions are going to be merged in an integrated one?
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jun 06, 2018 8:50 AM
Replying to Ehsan Eslami
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Good shot Sergio. The reason I asked this question is referred to thoughts which always circulate in my mind about the shape of business in future. I tend to think that businesses are going to be more simple but narrow. This means that the diversity of products and operations will be confined in a way that addressing different needs of customers in a very optimum time. In terms of technology, consider AI, M2M and robotics which are already here and we need to deal with them. This deal includes defining proper job positions, requirements and business processes which potentially can influence today's well-structured positions.
Both roles are totally indpendent of the technology and other things. I started working with lot of things that becomes today buzzwords (AI, IoT, Agile, Big Data, etc) from 1980 up to date and the basement have not changed. Key is to understand that organizations are open and adaptable systems then when the environment changes they must change or died. That implies to pay attention to the organizational architecture. Organizational needs of change create a problem situation to solve. Business Analyst is the role in charge of that from strategy to implementation. But when the solution is defined it must be created. Project Manager is in charge of that. So, no matter what happend in the future, always will be a role that must help on solution (business analyst) and always will be a role that will help in making the solution reality (project manager).
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Kevin Coleman Subject Matter Expert, Author, Speaker and Strategic Advisor| - Insights Pa, United States
I hate having to give this answer but - - - It depends upon how artificial intelligence and other technologies progress in the same period of time.
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Greg Githens Author, "How to Think Strategically." Executive & Leadership Coach| Catalyst & Cadre LLC Lakewood Ranch, Fl, United States
I've always said that "The most important tool is between your ears."

Both BAs and PMs can become too hung up in methodology and neglect ambiguity. They don't talk to the right people and they don't ask enough questions. They rely on their assumptions.

We need more excellence and less mediocrity in each position.
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1 reply by Ehsan Eslami
Jun 07, 2018 8:42 AM
Ehsan Eslami
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Definitely right Greg. Soft Skills become first in that period, I believe.
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Ehsan Eslami Lead Project Controls| Metrolinx Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Jun 07, 2018 8:37 AM
Replying to Greg Githens
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I've always said that "The most important tool is between your ears."

Both BAs and PMs can become too hung up in methodology and neglect ambiguity. They don't talk to the right people and they don't ask enough questions. They rely on their assumptions.

We need more excellence and less mediocrity in each position.
Definitely right Greg. Soft Skills become first in that period, I believe.
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Michael Delaney Partner| Delaney Management LLC West Chester, Pa, United States
I agree both will be needed and while the roles are separate, they do rely on each other.
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Anish Abraham Privacy Program Manager| University of Washington Auburn, Wa, United States
I concur with my colleagues here, since both roles are important we will need these roles in future too.
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Adrian Carlogea Australia
In my opinion the work associated with these roles will always be needed. However I can't tell if more people specialized as business analysts and project managers would be needed in the future.

For instance I have seen that business analysts are only needed on relatively large and complex projects while for less complex ones other people would do their jobs. To some extent this is also true for project managers.

Regarding merging the roles I don't know but what I have seen is that project managers that had worked as business analysts before moving to project management usually do a much better job.

In IT at least in my opinion PMs that haven never worked on similar projects in non-project management positions simply can't fully manage a project. When working with the project teams they are just some sort of status trackers and not much more.

Those coming from technical roles or quality assurance will do much better but former business analysts are probably best suited for project management roles.
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