Business Analyst Vs Project Manager – Do They Share The Same Role?

The question that afflicts many businesses and companies in today’s world is whether a business analyst and project manager can be the same person. Each career path has different responsibilities, but both are important for business infrastructure and production plans. Knowing the difference between the two can help your business hire the right person for the job or help you find the right way to work according to your interests.

Business Analyst

Business analysts scrutinize past and current business data with the supreme goal of upgrading decision-making processes in organizations. They work collaboratively with stakeholders to identify goals, best practices, and other effective methods of data collection and analysis as they relate to the needs of a particular organization.

Essential Responsibilities of Business Analysts

• Understanding of the business, including the most important, the processes by which they carry out their work.
• Evaluate those processes for productivity, price, and outcome.
• Consolidating company recommendations on process improvements, new powerful dynamic technologies, or other areas for improvement.
• Leading research, design, and implementation of other technologies or processes that require greater technical understanding within the group, including the implementation of performance specifications.
• Project management, project development planning, performance monitoring, and ensuring timely funding.
• Communicate changes, recommendations, and procedures to business groups.
• Stay involved with business leaders to help them understand how changes affect organizational goals.
• Contact a partner to find out the business needs
• Work with stakeholders to know about the service or product produced
• Perform surveys, workshops, and tests
• Analyze and model the data to produce conclusions
• Formulate suggestions and solutions to make tactical and operative changes
• Establish the systems or processes needed to implement this change, or modify existing systems
• Contact senior management about submitting business recommendations
• Write reports to present to participants
• Support staff as solutions are implemented
• Measure the impact of the changes made

Key Skills of a Business Analyst

• Business Awareness
• Communication and collaboration skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Analytical skills
• Leadership ability
• Time management and organizational skills
• Computer programs
• Project management skills
• Management ability

Salary for Business Analysts

As per the reports given by Glassdoor, the average national income of business analysts is 7,00,000 INR per year in India.

Project Manager:

In a broader sense, project managers (PMs) are responsible for planning, planning, and directing the completion of specific organizational projects while ensuring that these projects are timely, budgeted, and within standards.

Essential Responsibilities of a Project Manager

• Planning what work to do, when and who will do it
• To identify the risks involved in a particular project and to manage these risks
• To verify that work is done to the required standard
• To mobilize a team of project participants
• To integrate the work done by different people
• To ensure that the project is timely and budgeted
• Adapting to project changes where and when needed
• Checking whether the project fulfills the expected outcomes and benefits
• Managing the production of the required production
• Project planning and monitoring
• To accept any delegation and the use of project verification roles in the agreed reporting frameworks
• Preparing and maintaining a project, phase, and separate programs as needed
• Project risk management, including the development of potential contingency plans

Key Skills of a Project Manager

• Be successful in planning, monitoring, and review
• Ability to manage resources
• The ability to inspire and motivate others
• Strong-willed and dedicated even when faced with pressure
• Be aware of whom the project will affect and manage the impact it will have on them
• Command respect and trust
• Ability to resolve disputes
• Be problem-solving
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills
• Be able to link the work done by different people and organizations
• Collaborative skills and team player
• Ability to control and monitor budgets
• Have good IT skills.

Salary for Project Managers

Glassdoor has stated that the average national salary of a Project Manager is 15,00,000 INR per year in India.

How is a Business Analyst related to a Project Manager?

Business analysts or Project Manager participated in the project where the lines between the Business Analyst role and the role of Project Management were clarified.

Though it seems like both product managers and business analysts work together in alliance on projects, they essentially have different responsibilities that help people distinguish between the two. Both have many names that go with it, for example, engineering manager, project manager, scrum master, etc., which does not help to confuse. The discrepancy between job qualifications may leave business analysts and product owners wondering why but there is a difference between a product manager and a business analyst.

Project Manager

• Typically the first person who is assigned to a project.
• You are responsible for planning the project and making sure the team follows the plan.
• It manages change, deals with problems, and keeps the project going.
• It treats people, money, and risk.
• He is a great facilitator of good or bad news for business sponsors and IT management.

Business Analyst

• It is usually assigned to a project after it has started.
• Responsible for closing the gap between the business environment and IT
• Learn business inside and out.
• It basically serves as the builder of active business plans.
• It looks at inconsistencies across the industry in terms of job title, definition, and responsibilities.

As needs are collected, analyzed, and documented by the business Analyst, the Project Manager becomes more involved, reviewing needs and adjusting the system where necessary. The Project Manager also reviews the decisions taken when the BA and the technology developer develop a solution. Usually, the Project Manager reviews everything that is delivered to projects at a high level that needs to be addressed and the problems of the project. Business Analyst reviews all project activities related to needs, solutions, and evaluation; refer to the details to ensure that the business needs are addressed.

What we have learned so far:

To make an effective software solution, it is not enough to write code and make sure it does not contain bugs. Also, it is important to make sure it solves the problem you are having. To ensure that both goals are met, a project manager and the involvement of a business analyst are required in most cases. The project manager usually focuses on the project as a set of tasks, builds foundations, liaises with members of the development team, and resolves project issues. Contrarily, a Business Analyst focuses on the end product, analyzes business issues, and provides a technical solution.

Both Business Analytics and Project Management are inevitable for today’s businesses to run efficiently and smoothly. Business Analyst and Project Manager who seems to share the same roles and responsibilities at a glance is inherently different and diverse with distinguished working patterns and goals and skills and salary ranges. Willing to be a Business Analyst? Or is it a Project Manager? Join SKILLOGIC Certification Training!