Business Analysts and Project Managers each play an important role in delivering change to an organization. To work well together, each need to understand their roles: Determining the "What." Executing the "How." Understanding and conveying the "Why."
Business Analysts act as the bridge between the end user and the people who will affect a vision. However, getting to the What requires skills beyond just asking questions. Listening to users may lead to the skill of "asking the next question;" anticipating what the people who direct this vision of change, often a Project Manager, will want to know. Understanding what users want, the What must happen, represents one side of the BA equation.
Knowing the What does no good if kept to oneself. The What requires effective, objective communication to the team. After learning to ask the next question, Business Analysts must convey the complete answers. For Project Managers to plan the How, they must know the details of the What.
Building on the What, it's up to Project Managers to figure out the How. This centers on a crucial understanding of the What. Like a Business Analyst, Project Managers must ask the next question. Having the answers ready to explain to the people doing the work (and their supervisors) will smooth some of the friction of the project. Understanding the details of the What leads to better WBS, deliverables, … results.
Both Business Analysts and Project Managers must understand the Why. Why are we doing this? What value does it add to the firm? Like so much of what's been discussed here, both these roles must also convey the importance of the Why to stakeholders and other people involved in the project.
It's not true that people don't like change. People seek dramatic change in their life. They get married, have children, buy new cars, go to school to learn new things. Pain is not in the change, but in the resistance to the change. Understanding the Why helps ease this resistance. If, after the stakeholders understand the Why, resistance persists, perhaps it's time to re-examine the need for the project.
Understanding their roles in plumbing the What, the How, and the Why helps Business Analysts and Project Managers work well together. Active communication lies as the base of any interaction between these important project roles. Listening and asking questions, asking the next question, build the What, the How, and the Why. Effectively transmitting the Why leads to success in the project.
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