Project Management & Business Analysis

Project management and business analysis are in fact two disciplines that are becoming more and more strategic for many companies. Project management focuses on the creation of the “product, service, or result” of the project in order to meet its objectives. 

Business analysis aims at understanding the needs of the business stakeholders and at defining the characteristics of the solution to meeting those needs. Through the integration of these two disciplines, organizations can achieve superior project performance, both from the standpoint of the realization of project deliverables and from the creation of business value.
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What is Business Analysis?

Business analysis' 'Business Analysis as a practice helps facilitate change in an organization by defining business needs in collaboration with its stakeholders through strategic analysis and requirement engineering.

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In this Article we're going to look at what's the difference between a project manager and a business analyst. The line between the roles of project managers and business analysts is blurry, and the responsibilities of the roles will vary from organization to organization. The common way to differentiate the roles is to think of the project manager as being responsible for managing the project as a whole, while the business analyst is often responsible for managing all elements of requirements, from gathering at the beginning to validating at the end.

This article explores the roles of both the project manager and business analyst within the five standard phases of a project.

1-The Initiation Phase 

After a business case has been submitted and a project has been approved, the first big task for both the project manager and business analyst will be to have a follow-up conversation with the project sponsor to take a deeper dive into the project. At that time.

The project manager's focus will be on gathering information around how the project will be funded, what the timeline is, and how project success will be measured.

The business analyst, however, will start identifying what stakeholders will need to be involved in the project and start getting a feel for what the high-level requirements are. This is primarily done through capturing user stories around how they feel the new functionality or tool should work. All of this information will feed into the project charter, which is an output of the initiation phase.

2-The Planning Phase 

During the planning phase,The project manager works to build out a communication plan, which details how often each specific stakeholder will be communicated to, and how they will be communicated to. The project manager also pulls together a detailed schedule, risk management plan, and works with the technical leads to pull together the resources that will be required to do the work.

The business analyst takes this time to start breaking the users captured user stories and high-level requirements into more detailed requirements. To do this, she may lead brainstorming or process mapping sessions, which will feed into the generation of wireframes that can be referenced by the developers. The business analyst will then start breaking those requirements down into specific tasks, which developers will provide estimates for.All of this requirements information will live inside of the work breakdown structure, which is owned and maintained by the business analyst. 

All of the information generated by both the project manager and business analyst will get pulled into the project plan, which is managed by the project manager.

3-The Execution Phase 

The primary job of the project manager during the execution phase is keeping a thumb on the pulse of the project and making sure that everything stays on track. The project manager is responsible for everything from raising awareness of risks to getting the work completed on time, and monitoring issues to ensure they get resolved in a timely manner.

Alternatively, the business analyst should be generating test cases and test plans that will be used during testing to validate that what was developed is in line with what was asked for.

4-The Control Phase

The project manager will work to line up testers and distribute the test cases and test plans to the necessary parties, ensuring they are returned in a timely fashion.

The business analyst is responsible for reviewing the results that come back through the testing, and logging issues and bugs for the developers to resolve. 

If there are questions and concerns about how specific issues or bugs should be addressed, the project manager and business analyst should work with the primary stakeholder to discuss the correct action, and then give direction to the team based on that feedback.

SEE: Careers in Business Analysis and Project Management

5-The Closing Phase 

The project manager is responsible for ensuring that all documentation is signed and stored in the appropriate location, and ensuring that all bills get paid.

The business analyst, on the other hand, is responsible for ensuring that all of her updated documents make it into the hands of the project manager, and for making a final lap through the project from a requirements perspective to ensure that nothing was missed.

Both the project manager and business analyst, in addition to other key players on the project, should pull together a list of lessons learned to review with the team after the project is closed out.

Prepared by: Max Dalton

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Whether you are considering a career in project management or are ready for your next career opportunity, consider fine-tuning your skills in business analysis. The tools and skills in project management and business analysis are applicable to all industries. Learn about these dynamic fields from Project Management Institute (PMI) representatives. Discover the basic components of these disciplines, career paths, and the various certification opportunities.

Business analysis is a research discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a software-systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development. 
The person who carries out this task is called a business analyst or BA. Business analysts do not work solely on developing software systems. Those who attempt to do so run the risk of developing an incomplete solution

Contents:

• 1-What is Business Analysis?
• 2-How is Business Analysis related to project management?
• 3-How does Business Analysis relate to Requirements Management?
• 4-How do Business Analysis and/or Requirements Management affect the success of projects and

What is Business Analysis?

Business Analysis is the evaluation of an organization’s needs—followed by the identification and management of requirements—to arrive at a solution. In short, it is the discipline of working with stakeholders to define an organization’s requirements in order to shape the output of projects and ensure they deliver the expected business benefit.

How is Business Analysis related to project management?

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Requirements are an inherent aspect of Project Management (and Program Management) and Business Analysis is an important function that identifies, analyzes, and manages those requirements in order to ensure the goal of the project is achieved.

How does Business Analysis relate to Requirements Management?

Business analysis is a discipline of the broader practice of Requirements Management. Risk, complexity, change, stakeholder and communications management are components of Requirements Management but are only useful if you successfully identify and plan for them within the project and/or program plan.
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How do Business Analysis and/or Requirements Management affect the success of projects and programs?

A: Requirements are essential to the development of projects and programs. In fact, project managers in PMI’s 2015 Pulse of the Profession ® study said that poor Requirements Management is a major cause of project failure, second only to changing organization priorities. That same Pulse study found that 38 percent of organizations report inaccurate requirements gathering as a primary reason for project failure.

Several studies provide more evidence of the importance of Requirements Management:

• 1-Business Analysis Benchmark 2009: The Path to Success, a study by IAG consulting, found that poor requirements definition and management maturity undermines organizational competitiveness. Organizations with poor requirements maturity expend far more time, budget and management effort to achieve the same result as organizations with high maturity.
• 2-In another study, 2011 Strategies for Project Recovery (PM Solutions), the number one reason for troubled projects is related to requirements.
• 3-Poor Requirements Management made the list of Top 5 Project Failure Reasons, or Why My Project Fails, by Eric McConnell, which summarized data from blogs, articles and studies.