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| Project Manager and Business Analyst
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Location: Blogs Timothy Porter - PM in China |
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| Posted by: Timothy Porter |
11/20/2009 |
| I just finished listening to the recent webinar from the PMI ISSIG by Richard Fox. I found it very interesting and relevant to recent trends. In my own experience I certainly see many more BAs as members of the project team than I used to and see them making critical contributions. The increased focus on "requirements" is essential especially in light of the widespread adoption of Agile methods. In the Agile world, when thinking about productivity and meeting project goals, requirements volatility is a much larger factor than team capabilities, tools and development environment. While finding myself in general agreement with Richard I had a couple of points of disagreement. First, it was said that the BA should report to the PM. I don't find this to be the practice nor is it desirable. The BA is very much like a user surrogate and should not be within the span of control of the PM. I believe that separate individuals, separate job descriptions and separate reporting chain is highly desirable. Similarly having both roles filled by the same person in my opinion introduces substantial risk. With respect to reporting chain I see a trend not just to BAs but also to product managers to whom the BA reports. Lastly, the challenges presented by doing offshore work seem to magnify the negative effects that derive from poor requirements management making the BA even more important to a successful project. |
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Re: Project Manager and Business Analyst |
By Mike Craig on
6/8/2010 |
| I know this is rather late in coming but I really do agree with you and the idea of BA's being under the direction of a seperate group. The company I work for has BA's, Testers and QA staff sitting under the direction of a VP. They are charged with maintaining and validating system requirements throughout the systems life cycle. They answer to the VP, not a PM whose interests often come in as a conflict of interest. |
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Re: Project Manager and Business Analyst |
By Tim Porter on
6/8/2010 |
| As I mentioned, I think your company is on the right path. The idea of having testers report to this external-to-PM chain is also a good idea. For one thing it forces the developers not to "outsource" their testing responsibility to testing. Given the chance many developers will do exactly this. |
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