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By understanding
their respective
strengths, project
managers and
business analysts
can deliver better
project results.
BY AMY MERRICK
ILLUSTRATION BY ANGELA RIO
Allied
Forces
P
roject 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.
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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 person is working within.”
Divide and Conquer
Business analysts are responsible for defining requirements and deliverables, which often leads to a laser
focus on meeting stakeholder expectations. Project
managers, on the other hand, must manage expectations so that their projects don’t go off the rails, says
Maksym Ovsianikov, PMI-PBA, PMP, lead technical
business analyst, EPAM Systems, Mountain View,
California, USA.
“Project managers concentrate their efforts more
on the overall scope of the project, because they are
constrained by the timeline, quality and other project requirements,” Mr. Ovsianikov says.
Only 30%
of low-performing organizations*
saw effective collaboration between
project managers and business
analysts—or the person performing
requirements management.
*Organizations that complete 60 percent or fewer projects on
time, on budget and meeting original goals
It leaps to
67%
for high-performing
organizations.**
**Organizations that complete 80
percent or more of projects on time,
on budget and meeting original goals.
Source: PMI’s 2014 Pulse of the Profession®: Requirements Management—A Core Competency for Project and Program Success.
“Project managers concentrate their
efforts more on the overall scope
of the project, because they are
constrained by the timeline, quality
and other project requirements.”
—Maksym Ovsianikov, PMI-PBA, PMP, EPAM Systems, Mountain View,
California, USA
But both parties must get into lockstep to keep
initiatives on track. Only 30 percent of low-performing organizations (organizations that complete
60 percent or fewer projects on time, on budget and
meeting original goals) saw effective collaboration
between project managers and business analysts—
or the person performing requirements management—according to the Pulse report. It leaps to 67
percent for high-performing organizations—those
that complete 80 percent or more of projects on
time, on budget and meeting original goals.
Having clearly defined roles helps build a solid
working relationship between business analysts and
project managers, says Dwayne Wright, PMI-ACP,
PMI-PBA, PMP, senior business analyst, Alaska
Airlines, Seattle, Washington, USA.
When sharing his expertise on a project, he
acknowledges where his responsibilities end and the
project manager’s begin. At Alaska Airlines, he also
takes the initiative to run high-quality requirement
workshops and structured walkthroughs for project
deliverables to make sure everyone stays on the same
page. To keep collaborative relationships productive,
he advises: “Support in public. Disagree in private.”
Developing a deep understanding of each other’s
roles and responsibilities can create a stronger
working relationship—which often means more
satisfied clients, says Odette-Simone Smolicz, PMP,
project management office director, enterprise
transformation, CRM Loyalty, Sydney, Australia.
“The project manager looks inward toward the
solution team to make sure the solution is being built
right, while the business analyst looks outward to the
customer and organization to ensure that the right
solution is being built,” Ms. Smolicz says. “The project manager also must look outward to the organization to ensure alignment of deliverables and solution
to the strategic objectives. Through the project manager, the business analyst understands the challenges
and issues and is able to relay those challenges [to
customers] and facilitate decision making.”
Diplomatic Relations
Fostering a truly collaborative relationship starts
by building trust and opening the lines of communication, says Mr. Wright. He finds it helpful
when project managers follow a schedule for sharing information and insights. These regular updates
make it less likely that changes will fall through the
cracks as the project evolves.
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“The project manager looks inward toward
solution is being built right, while the bu
customer and organization to ensure th
Too Many Hats
At some organizations, project managers
also play the role of business analyst. However, multitasking and the inherent challenge of using different skills for each role
can become a risk factor when the project
is too big for one person to handle both
roles. When the burden gets too heavy, it’s
best to split up responsibilities to keep the
project on the right path.
For instance, Maksym Ovsianikov,
PMI-PBA, PMP, senior technical business
analyst, EPAM Systems, Mountain View,
California, USA, recalls a software project
in which he initially performed both roles
on a 10-member team. But in a short time,
the project had expanded to 35 team
members in different locations—with a
short timeline, large scope and a high
number of requirements. Mr. Ovsianikov
began to spend a huge amount of time
simply developing schedules, organizing
meetings and creating minutes. He realized
he needed help.
Because Mr. Ovsianikov knew the
product well, he chose to focus on business
analyst responsibilities and asked another
person to become the project manager.
“We agreed who would cover what, who
would handle which tasks and how we
would effectively collaborate,” he says.
The new project manager focused on
communication, project planning and solving issues within the team. Mr. Ovsianikov,
meanwhile, remained the primary point
of contact for the customer, eliciting and
translating requirements and the vision of
the product to the software development
team. “It was a really good decision—our
customer was really satisfied,” he says.
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Inviting business analysts to planning sessions
or other project management meetings also helps
them get a front-row view of the pressures that
project managers face on a daily basis, says Michael
Brown, senior technical writer, Lockheed Martin,
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Mr. Brown’s role
encompasses many of the responsibilities often
handled by a business analyst.
“Techniques are great, but understanding is
always better,” Mr. Brown says. “Because once the
project manager understands the problem the business analyst is trying to solve, and once the business
analyst understands the project manager’s decisions are driven by pressures out of their control,
then more appropriate techniques can be created
or applied.”
But the relationship shouldn’t be all business.
Lunch meetings or other social activities, such as
playing a sport together, allow the project manager
and business analyst to develop a personal bond
that can ease professional tensions.
“This helps the working relationship, because you
can push the boundaries and challenge each other,”
Mr. Chute says. “That’s not the case with strangers
or even acquaintances. You may have a very different
view than that person, but you wouldn’t challenge
that view as strongly as with somebody you know.”
From Both Flanks
By playing to each other’s strengths—and compensating for each other’s weaknesses—project managers and business analysts can produce better results.
But if one party steamrolls the other, the project
outcome will most likely suffer.
When project constraints are too rigid, for exam-
the solution team to make sure the
siness analyst looks outward to the
at the right solution is being built.”
—Odette-Simone Smolicz, PMP, CRM Loyalty, Sydney, Australia
ple, business analysts can fall into a pattern of
playing it safe, says Mr. Ovsianikov. And if analysts
don’t speak up to identify project shortfalls, that can
lead to dissatisfied stakeholders.
Mr. Ovsianikov has worked as both a project
manager and a business analyst. When serving as
a project manager, he learned to give the business
analyst leeway to propose creative ways to deliver a
project’s technical requirements. He recently managed a team that increased from 10 members to
35 members during development of a new software product. Rather than micromanaging
the user interface, he let his business analyst partner and user experience information architect take the concept and
create wireframes, a type of schematic
that shows how users would interact
with the system. As a result, it helped
his team to understand the product
from the customers’ perspective.
Although project managers need
to verify that business analysts stay
within cost, schedule and resource
parameters, they also need to be flexible
when it feels as if the analyst is pressing
too hard to change the project scope, says
Ms. Smolicz.
While project managers must critically
asses each change that is recommended—
and analyze the dependencies each change will
affect—they must also make sure the end result will
meet the stakeholders’ high priority demands, she
says. “The business analyst must ensure the project
manager does not sacrifice the solution in response
to the demands of schedule or budget.” PM
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