Career Track Supplement - November 2008

With business projects growing increasingly intricate and complex, project managers might be wise to acquire the skills of business analysts who usually have broader knowledge of the business goals and constraints. Typically, these are people involved in pricing and selling the project, then handing it off to a team.

There is no reason a single person shouldn’t handle both business analysis and project management, says Robert Wysocki, Ph.D., a Worcester, Massachusetts, USA-based consultant.

Too often, the business analyst who has worked with the client at the start of the process has estimated the cost of a project at the low end. Then, the project manager looks at the particulars and judges the established cost as unrealistic.

But individuals who perform both business analysis and project management, Dr. Wysocki argues, would have enterprise-wide scope and be involved in formulation of the business plan, allocation of resources, and development of templates and processes. This person would also establish subordinate positions with defined career paths in both analysis and project management.

As project managers become more senior professionals, their assignments integrate more business analysis skills.

And that’s already reflected in some training programs.

“At least in the training industry, the project manager and the business analyst are becoming bedfellows,” Dr. Wysocki says. He adds that many of the skills of both are acquired on the job. “The professionals already have a great deal of skill overlap so that skill acquisition isn’t that traumatic,” he says.

Not everyone agrees. Some say that the fields naturally attract different personality types— business analysts being more research-oriented and project managers more focused on the tangible task at hand.

Business analyst Yvonne Harrison says project managers can learn to take a page from their number-crunching colleagues.

“Good analysis—the ability to identify a problem, to talk to sources and to document the findings—is typically the output of an inquiring mind,” she says.

And that’s an attractive mindset to demonstrate when you’re looking to climb the ranks.

Charmed Life

So you’re feeling pretty good about your communications skills. Now what happens when you encounter one of those conflicts that inevitably arise in the course of a project? Some charm and persuasion may be in order. Djalma Pinheiro Gomes, PMP, considers negotiation and conflict resolution skills vital to his job as senior project manger at Tata Consultancy Services in São Paulo, Brazil.

When two sides start to dig in their heels, diplomatic persuasion can demonstrate to colleagues and stubborn clients that there are alternative ways to resolve a problem, says Mr. Gomes. “We have to not only be business-oriented but people-oriented, too, because projects are mainly about people,” he says. Projecting a collaborative rather than autocratic style helped him earn respect among clients, superiors and peers—and ultimately win promotions.

Some people are naturally good hagglers. For others, this skill doesn’t come quite as easily. But observing how the masters of the craft operate and practicing their techniques can help you synthesize these skills.

Of course in some cases, project managers also have to know when to escalate the issue. “Mid-career people are not given much autonomy,” says Mr. Gomes. “I still call for the top person to negotiate with the client.”

Mr. Gomes recommends that project managers looking to move into such top positions cultivate the ability to awaken top leaders to problems and motivate them to make decisions they might otherwise not be willing to tackle.