Don’t Mix Roles

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Don’t Mix Roles
Michael Vinje (February 18, 2008)

All other things being equal, the better a project’s business case and requirements are analyzed and communicated, the better the overall outcomes. And business analysts, by job definition, are going to fulfill this responsibility better than project managers.

In October 2003, 28 men and women met in Toronto for the inaugural meeting of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). That meeting may ultimately contribute more to business-process improvement than most of today’s project management tools and agile development methodologies combined.

The formation of the IIBA meant that requirements planning and analysis — the first steps in all successful IT business-process-improvement efforts — would someday be in the hands of trained and certified business analysts, not project managers whose interests, strengths and certifications are aimed at other areas, most notably the complexities of orchestrating implementations.

Overall, the number of on-time and on-budget IT projects is increasing. Better training, a greater number of certified professionals, enhanced tools and more sophisticated oversight by project sponsors and IT management are all contributing to this improvement in delivery.

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