Steven Blais

Juggling Hats: Playing The

Role Of Business Analyst And

Project Manager At The Same

Time

1

Housekeeping

• Slides will be available on our SlideShare page, link will be emailed to you

• Recording of the webinar will be available to download, link will be emailed

• Take the time to complete post-webinar survey that will pop up at the end

• You can type your questions throughout the session

• Time will be allocated in the end for the speaker to address your questions

Steve Blais

Independent Consultant

ASAR - Al Ruwayeh & Partners’ Bahrain

Steve Blais, PMP, PBA, has 47 years' experience in Information Technologies as a consultant, author, speaker,

mentor and coach. He has performed as a programmer, project manager, business analyst, system analyst,

general manager, and tester over that time. He has also been in an executive position for several start-up

companies.

He writes a monthly column for Business Analysis Times and is a frequent contributor to AllpM.com, Modern

Analyst and other publications. He has presented the keynote addresses at PMI PacRim Conference in Tokyo

(2012), PMI South America in Sao Paolo (2011), IPMA European Conference (2013) and other conferences

around the world. He is the author of Business Analysis: Best Practices for Success (John Wiley, 2011).

Ideal Project manager /

Business analyst relationship • A “Janus” relationship

– Business analyst looking

outward to the organization

– Project manager looking

inward to the team

Clearly a Project is Better with

Two

• Provide counter balance

• Keep each other honest

• Amortize the specialization

• Back each other up

• Ensure a quality delivery

• Explicit and recorded conversation

• Increased pool of ideas and opinions

The Primary Focus

Problem Domain Solution Domain

Use Use Problem

Vision As Is I d e n t I f y

Accept

D e p l o y

Communication Business Community Solution Team

Solution

Source: Blais, Business Analysis: Best Practices for Success, John Wiley, 2011 3

Business Analyst Project manager

The Problem

• The division between problem and

solution domains is not clear cut

• The problem continues (and changes)

while the problem is being solved

• The solution changes while the problem

is being solved

– As do the impacts

Why One Person is Assigned

• Dictated by limitations on budget or resources

• Low risk (project failure has no major impact)

• No time or budget issues (R&D project) • Emphasis can be on business analyst role

• Requirements and scope defined and stable • Emphasis is on the project manager role

Inherent Problems

• Attention is split

– Not available for team decisions when dealing with

customer

– Not available to customer and users when dealing

with technical issues

• Knowledge / experience gap

– More capable / skilled in one or the other role

• Too much accountability

• No checks and balances

Pitfalls

Familiarity / safety

Advocacy

Conflict of interest

Conflict resolution

Long range view vs. deadline view

Cross-organizational vs. project focus

What versus how issue

What to do?

– Wear different hats

– Attend meetings as only one role

– Moderate or facilitate meetings as only one

role

• Do not mix types of meetings

– Ask those with questions which role they

are talking to

• “Are you talking to the business analyst or the

project manager?”

What to do (Part 2)

– Defer decisions

– Assign lieutenants for sanity checking

– Physical separation of roles

• Different drawers in the file cabinet

• Business analyst on right side of desk; project

manager on left

– Become schizophrenic

– Bottom line: maintain the focus!

Questions?

Thank you

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