Given the importance of the relationship between the Project Manager and the Business Analyst on a project team, how can an organization nurture this key relationship and, in the process, ensure better team performance? Here are six basic strategies you can employ:
1. Train and cross training PMs and BAs on methodology and roles. Each should understand the responsibilities of the other and agree on how to attain outcomes.
2. Build two-person teams of PMs and BAs who can work together more than once so they can get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
3. Reward collaboration and cultivate PMs and BAs who exhibit the best characteristics of their respective roles.
4. Chose PMs and BAs who naturally understand the value of compromise and work actively together to manage risk.
5. Develop a mindset where professionals over-communicate to ensure that nothing gets missed.
Finally, (6) pay close attention to interdependencies. One of the major strategic areas of overlap between the PM and BA roles, for example, is the area of scope definition and management. These professionals should be deeply involved in discussions such as this which are deceptively straightforward, but end up playing havoc on schedules and budgets.
Cathy Cecere
Marketing Manager with Doreen Evans Associates, Inc.
http://www.doreenevans.com