Roles of the Project Manager and
Business Analyst

Elizabeth Larson, CBAP, PMP

There have been many articles and blog postings lately on the role of the Project Manager (PM) and Business Analyst (BA). We have also written about how organizations are blending the role, even though we do not advocate it. Reality and budgets sometimes dictate that the same person play both roles. Our recent 2009 Trends article mentioned that companies are increasingly blending the role, which statistics back up. There are always issues when cutting corners, though, and we wanted to clarify that it is important to keep the roles separated whenever possible. Now, for this month's tip...

Even when the roles of project manager and business analysts are separated,t here are points where conflicts can and do occur. One of these is around collaboration to gather and manage requirements. You probably know that trust is essential to successful collaborations. We talk about it in our classes frequently.

It's difficult to establish trust, though, when roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. Trust and collaboration can't be dictated (“You will trust each other and you will collaborate—or else!”). Having been both a BA and a PM, I have seen how important both roles are to the success of the project. I do not think these roles need to cause conflict, but I think recently they have, mainly due to the misinterpretation of the two bodies of knowledge. For example, having a section on collecting requirements (Section 5.1 of the PMBOK® Guide - Fourth Edition) might be misinterpreted as saying that project managers do the requirements work. Having the BABOK® suggest that the business analyst is responsible for the total project scope.

It seems to me that the project manager gets input from many resources on the team, including the business analyst, and incorporates that input into the project management plan. Having been lead contributor to both bodies of knowledge, I do not see them as contradictory. The project manager needs to ensure that requirements are collected. The business analyst is responsible for business analysis activities, which are incorporated into the project activities. The biggest area for potential conflict, it seems to me, are the pre-project activities. Who defines the business problem and project objectives seem to be in question. Are they defined before the project is undertaken during Enterprise Analysis? By the sponsor or project manager or business analyst as part of the Project Charter? I do think that BA and PM responsibilities in this area will need to sort themselves out as the business analysis profession matures.

What do you think? If you have ideas or anecdotes from your experiences, please send us an email.

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