As a rule, the PM is solely responsible for the project's schedule and costs. Having written that however, any PM worth their salt will expect input from the core team members. As an example, you, the business annalyst, are responsible for producing a list of activities that you will need to get done. This includes all of your document deliverables, workshops, interviews - everything. In addition, you are expected to provide the amount of effort (in hours at 100% volcity) it will take to complete each of you activities. Your PM may only ask you to provide high level deliverables, nevertheless, you need to go through this exercise to ensure you do not miss anything. Don't worry ad out the duration or days you need to deliver. Your PM will convert your effort into duration using your productivity and availability as factors.

so no you don't really have a "say" in timelines BUT you must give input to the longest running and arguably most important phase in any project.

is that "say"? I don't know - what do you say?

Rhadesh,

Project budget and timelines are based on the activities that have to be done, and the time needed to complete them - and the business analysis activities are a key part of software development projects. Logically, the best source of expertise on scope of activities and associated effort would be the lead / senior BA.

Many organizations are moving towards a much more collaborative structure for projects, with the PM, lead BA and solution architect as equal peers in a collaborative partnership. There is a great quote from Kathleen Barrett, former President and CEO of the IIBA that supports this type of partnership:

"Project Managers own the scope of the PROJECT...Business Analysts own the scope of the SOLUTION".

However, you still have to work within whatever governance structure has been defined for your project and organization. If you haven't been given explicit authority for this type of input, you can still work to build a collaborative relationship with your PM. Take your thoughts and ideas forward to your PM as an offer of assistance that will make the project (and therefore the PM) more successful - not as a criticism or objection to the plan that the PM has put together on his/her own. The more trust you build with the PM and the organization's management team, the more they will begin to turn to you for this type of input in future. Organizations that have instituted these types of collaborative relationships have done so because they have a trusted relationship with their business analysts.

Sandy