(Professional Business Analyst Training

organisation)

PRODUCT MANAGER VS BA ( ROLE OF BA IN PRODUCT BASED COMPANIES )

In IT organizations (those doing either internal software or custom software) 'business analysts' are often responsible for the gathering the detailed product requirements

Each product (or product area) needs that clear owner that¹s accountable and responsible for everything from high-level objectives to the details of the user experience.

Product manager on border sider see conception, background research, requirements writing, interfacing with Dev and QA, and ensuring successful rollout and training of all key stakeholders (Implementation, Customer Support and Sales).

The BA's role is confined to the requirements writing and interfacing with DEV and QA. There are Business or market expert focus on competitive analysis, positioning, strategy, portfolio management. BA's is normally not involved in these activity.

Traditional BA (Waterfall) Agile BARequirements are documented in Use Cases,Business Requirements, Functional requirements, UI Specifications, Business Rules.

Requirements are documented in Epics, User Stories and optionally Business (or Essential) Use cases.

   Focuses on completeness of requirement and spends time in ensuring the requirement is unambiguous and has all the details.

Focuses on understanding the problem and being the domain expert so that s/he can answer questions from the development team swiftly and decisively.

Focuses on getting a ‘sign off’ on the requirements.

Focuses on ensuring the requirements meet the currentbusiness needs, even if it requires updating them.

Often there is a wall between the BA/Business and the Development team.

Agile BA (Often called as Product Owner) is part of the team.

Tends to dictate solutions.Has to remain in the problem domain, leaving the development team ‘space’ to explore different solutions.

Long turnaround. Quick turnaround.Focus on what the requirements document said. In other words, output (Artifact) is a well written thorough requirements document.

Focus on the functionality of the developed software. In other words, output (Artifact) is the software that meets thebusiness needs.

   

Within organization if they don’t have dedicated product manager then BA can act as product manager.

Just to more on elaborative sider Role and responsibility of a BA would be a subset of the Product Manager's responsibility.

BA is completely focused on processes, schedules, plans, etc. irrespective of the "product."

A business analyst works with the customers and communicates it to the IT team. They could assist in prioritizing, but it is the customer who actually prioritizes the requirements.

The business analysts have the potential to be excellent product managers.

Below is the diagrammatic details for Roles expectation of BA and Product manager.

Advantages of Brainstorming:

• It is very cost effective.• If the group members are not available it can be conducted with single person.• Easy technique to understand.• Easy way to get a lot of ideas.• Less resources are required.

Disadvantages of Brainstorming:

• People do not participate easily.• Discussion can go into too much detail.• May have repeats of opinions.• May not end up with usable solutions.