From Project Manager to Business Analyst

I have worked as a business analyst for years and this is what I did as part of my day-to-day activities:
- understand business processes
- talk to the client
- understand their needs
- document & design a solution
- provide this solution to the technical team for implementation

As a project manager, I am hoping to go ahead and handle these kind of projects which provide a solution to the clients through a team of architects, business analysts, developers, testers, etc.

Currently as a consultant and PM in a small country and company I have been pulled into many "issues" (sometimes unrelated to project) in the business ranging from organizational issues to procurement of needed software solutions or services which are needed to prevent roadblocks and de-escalate risks threatening the achievement of the objectives of the key stake holders. Experience and knowledge of Business Analysis and even Business Process methods are two areas of great need to such organizations.

Both industrial experience as well as economic knowledge education/training complement each other and are necessary in order for the "Project Manager to bring her/his clients down to earth". Senior Management appreciate the analysis and it justifies the PMO or even consulting PM in the organization. I would expect in large companies the organizational walls separate the responsibility of analysis to another team but every PM should be ready to engage in any opportunity to employ methods of analysis during his project life cycle such as stated in previous comment from Network:93099
Stéphane Parent "SWOTS, feasibility studies, benefits/costs and gaps" at a minimum

PM and Business Analyst are the 2 roles which goes hand in hand. Project manager is more concerned with the project performance and delivery where the business analyst is more focused on business requirements and product objectives who is a bridge between sponsor and development team . If a person can handle both the responsibilities, he will be more successful in project execution.

Interested question

A good BA should be well rounded.

I see the broad usage of the term "business analyst" to be equivalent to "systems engineer" except where the BA primarily addresses business requirements and how a product/project provides utility to the business, the SE primarily addresses technical requirements and how the product provides utility to the customer. The BA is really a SE, but the system of interest is the business system more than the product itself.

In both cases, the product knowledge helps define the value of the goods or services provided, both in what is delivered to the customer, and the difficulty in providing it. Microeconomics also helps understanding both the value to the customer's business, and the value to the business providing service to the customer. Macroeconomics helps understand the environment or market. Many of the tools are even the same, such as flow diagrams for business processes and system level processes.

As the knowledge areas overlap, understanding each helps the BA (or SE) align their work to the desired values and make better decisions.