I'm curious to hear from others on how these roles are distiguished within their organzations. We've had an IT PMO for a while and have just created an Enterprise Business Analyst team. We're having issues with roles and determing where and when a PM (or the PMO) should be brought in during the project conceptualization phase. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks! Saving Changes...
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Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Suzanne
The difference in role is:
Business Analyst is content focussed
Project Management is process focussed
If you think in the triple constraint:
Business analyst describes the scope from a content perspective and the required quality
Project manager translate this into a required timeline and budget (or resources).
During the project the project manager guards the budget and the timeline. For the scope he relies on the Business Analyst to make sure the scope is still delivered
If your organisation has the same understanding over the two roles a project manager and business analyst should run the project conceptualisation phase together
hopes this helps
Hans Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hi Suzanne,
My experience also confirm Hans’s definition business analyst = content, project manager = process. More detailed, the business analyst has to understand the business needs and translate them in a way that can be understood by IT, bridging the 2 “worlds”. The BA is not responsible for the project success, the PM is the one ultimately accountable, therefore the PM also has the decision-making power within project boundaries.
Regarding the timing of engaging each role in the project, we must distinguish between software projects and “rest of the world”. Typically, the requirements are expressed by clients before the project is started, and they are the basis of chartering the project and assigning a PM. These requirements are normally done by a business SME, sometimes called a Business Analyst – once again before a PM is assigned.
In software development is different, because the project is typically chartered to do “something”, and gathering business requirements is part of the project itself. In this case the PM is assigned first, and the BA(s) will be part of the resources that will be provisioned for executing the project.
Hope it helps,
George Jucan
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John ReilingSeeking new opportunities | AcroVision Business Systems, Inc.Mendham, Nj, United States
Hi,
I agree that the PM is more process focused, and I consider the BA to be 'product focussed', referring to the 'product of the project'. For more detail on my thinking, see my article 6 Hot Spots: Business Analysis as Part of a Project . Saving Changes...
Thanks for all of the great responses. One thing I would like some additiional help with is the role the PM plays during creation of the business case - or more specifically, what level of analysis does the business analyst typically do before turning the business case info over to the PM? My concern as a PM is around expectations that are being set regarding budget and schedule before the project is turned over to me so we can do the detailed planning. thanks!
I must say thanks to Suzanne for posting this discussion. I am a BA and always have to defend myself from being drawn into playing the role of the PM (unsucessfully at times). This definitely confirms my thoughts!
Thanks for letting me know im not crazy :) Saving Changes...
Kunjal GosarProject Engineer| Dell TechnologiesDubai, United Arab Emirates
Article by Seema Sonkiya: Difference between Project Manager and Business Analyst
