Executive's Guide to Project Management: Organizational Processes and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects

Project Manager, Business Analyst, Business Process, and Information Technology Skill Profile

As generalists become more pervasive in the organization you should see more and more professionals whose skill profile includes more than one discipline. For example, you probably know several professionals in your organization that have both PM and IT skills in their profiles. Most PMs have some skills in BA as most BAs will have some skills in PM. The PM and BA disciplines are quite complementary of and dependent on each other. With the passage of time all PMs, BAs, and BPPs will have acquired some level of proficiency in IT. Through the assignments they are given all professionals will have some proficiency in BP in one or more specific business processes. The bottom line here is that every professional has the skills of a generalist to some extent. All four disciplines will be visible in their skill profile.

The specialist will always have a place in the complex project position profile. Their roles will be consultative and they will assist with the most complex projects. While they might have all four disciplines present in their skills profile they will have one discipline that stands out among the others. This will be the area where they can contribute the most to solution discovery and integration.

A PM and BA Profile

It is quite common for an individual to have a skills profile that is strong in these two disciplines. The PM and BA professionals are an interesting contrast in ...