Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 11:20 am
You must have heard many discussions on the role of a project manager and that of a business analyst. One versus the other, or one is a progression to another. Irrespective of the debate, one thing is coming out clear, that project management and business analysis are pivotal and strategic roles within an organisation.
Project Management’s key focus is on ensuring to create ‘Product, Service, along with the Impact’. The Project Manager controls the project, by applying the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques, to conduct activities that meet the project requirements.
Business Analysis’s focus is on clearly understanding the needs of the stakeholders and the business objectives, and further defining the characteristics of the solution to meeting those needs. A business analyst analysis the situation, by using techniques and tasks to liaise with the stakeholders, with the endeavour to better understand operations, structure and policies of an organisation, so that they can recommend resolutions to the organisation to meet its goal.
Apply this to a broader perspective, if you need to create project deliverables to produce expected business deliverables, it becomes imperative to first understand the business need for the change of the organisation.
Not as simple as it sounds as the stakeholders speak the business language, not necessarily as project deliverable, and they will speak in terms of solutions and not needs.
This is because they are connected like you see. One focuses on change while the other on process, however both eventually make the business inch towards desirable benefits and thus the overall business objective is met.
This fact has caught the eye of many organisations. It is now clearly understood that business analysis has become a critical competency of importance to project management. Hence getting certified as a business analyst expert can move your career in a better direction, it is beneficial specially due to the rising opportunities in the field of business analysis. Organisations have understood that with the combined skills of both disciplines, they can open the doors for superior project management capabilities.
Rather than getting lost in the conflict, with a certification in Business Analysis, organisations can now look at integrating both the roles to ensure that projects are properly carried out and directed towards creation of business value.
A certified business analyst can add value project management by clearly understanding the business needs, and further translating it into feasible project requirements, all the while maintaining involvement of the stakeholders in the project.
The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge BABOK® and the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK® both the guides give insights, about how on every stage of execution, a professional with BA certification will benefit the organisation, or add value to the PMBOK® Guidelines, on not only Eliciting information from the stakeholders but will also add to the requirements expected like, Planning and Monitoring, from the Project Management point of focus.
It is interesting to know that the top three reasons of project failure, is the inability of the organisation to gather accurate requirements. Most of the issue and the core solutions are lost in transit. However, if an individual is trained as a Business Analyst, and understands how to shape project outputs to achieve intended business outcomes, then the solution arrived will not only be accurate but dynamic in nature.
