PMI’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) states, “The project manager is responsible for directing the project's resources; developing the project plan; and ensuring that the project is completed on time, within budget and with acceptable quality. The manager also plays a primary role interfacing and coordinating with customers and management.”

Most empirical evidence on software project results would suggest that this has not been a very successful approach.

Over the past few years, a different approach has become increasingly popular. It involves the addition of a new project role. I refer to the business analyst role. According to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA™), the role of the business analyst is to be “a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems.”

There seems to be a great deal of confusion among practitioners and experts concerning the interacting roles of the project manager and business analyst on a software project. I have actually heard some folks suggest that “since our company uses business analysts, we do not need a project manager!”

A project with an effective project manager and effective business analyst(s) has a much higher chance of success than a project without them. When a project manager and a business analyst are present on a project, the usual split of responsibilities includes the project manager emphasizing project schedule, cost, and resource management; while the business analyst works on product requirements identification and management. Confusion often arises because this cannot be an absolute split, since each usually has some responsibility in the other areas.

The responsibilities of the project manager should revolve around the project—namely completing it on time and within the planned budget. The business analyst must focus on the product of the project—ensuring that it meets the needs of the key stakeholders. The business analyst is a part of the project team with a primary responsibility to the key stakeholders. They represent the user on the project and must be concerned with the suitability of the product to solve the business problem.

The potential conflicts between these two necessary roles vary. One primary area of conflict involves the scope of the project. Often the project manager is against increasing the scope by adding features or functions to the product due to the impact on project cost/schedule. The business analyst recognizes that changes may be necessary in order to meet key stakeholder requirements. Change management can cause substantial issues between the two roles.

Another area of potential conflict arises due to the fact that the project manager must focus on the entire project, while the business analyst deals mainly with identifying, documenting and ensuring that the user-functional requirements are met.

Planning the requirements-oriented tasks and deliverables must be a joint responsibility between the project manager and business analyst. Requirements management is the major responsibility of the business analyst, but must be accomplished within the framework of the rest of the project and must meet organization and project standards. The project manager is usually assigned to a project very early—often even prior to kickoff—while unfortunately a business analyst may not start on a project until its planning is well along. Since requirements management is such a critical component, we strongly suggest that the business analyst be assigned as early as possible in the project lifecycle. The project manager and business analyst must work very closely to effectively manage the requirements.

The result of adding an effective business analyst to a project should be a split of the responsibilities of the project manager along a project/product division. This split will allow each to apply their particular skills to where they can be most effective, resulting in a more effective and successful project.

Often, we see the two roles performed by a single individual. That is, a business analyst will also be tasked with the project management responsibilities of planning and managing a project. Traditionally, the software project manager has been held responsible for ensuring that the software product meets all requirements of the key stakeholders. This is a tremendous set of responsibilities for a single individual and is, in my opinion, to be avoided. The built-in conflicts are too great and it is rare to find a single individual who possesses the wide range of skills needed to accomplish both roles successfully. Even on relatively small projects, an organization would be much better served by keeping the required roles of project manager and business analyst assigned to different individuals.

In summary, both the project manager and business analyst roles must be effectively performed for a successful project. The two must be able to work together on the project tasks and keep the success definition of the particular project in sight during execution. The duties and responsibilities of each role should be clearly defined and documented within the particular culture and environment of the organization for all to understand.