The PMI PMBOK Guide VER 4 defines project management as:

“The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements.” (page 6)

It then notes that project managers must address “the various needs, concerns, and expectations of the stakeholders as the project is planned and carried out.” (page 6).

The function of project management is to meet requirements and to address people’s needs, concerns, and expectations.

The guide then places the process of 10.1 – Identify Stakeholders as the centerpiece of project initiation, right alongside 4.1 Develop Project Charter. Whatever is going to happen on a project, it is going to involve a defined set of people who have a “stake” in the investment and in the work. If we are going to manage that set of people, we first have to know who they are and what makes them a stakeholder.

The guide then defines the first process of scope management as “Collect Requirements”. It also includes a Requirements Management Plan in the master Project Management Plan.

All of this work revolves around business analysis.

The project manager may do some of it, but when they do they are playing the role of business analyst. This work is clearly defined in the International Institute Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide 2.0).

One of the stated goals of the IIBA BABOK Guide 2.0 is to, “Clarify the relationship between business analysis and other disciplines, particularly project management…” (page 2).

The guide then goes on to delineate a series of activities that put the BA square in the center of a project’s success. These activities include:

Enterprise analysis
Requirements definition
Stakeholder management
Communication planning
Defining and validating quality metrics
Risk identification and management
Change management
Product acceptance
Project closure and transfer to operations

So, there is not just intersection, there are mutually dependent objectives, tasks, and deliverables. There is a common fate, a shared destiny, and a similar definition of enlightened self-interest that points to the necessity for close collaboration between PM and BA.

-Jay Ress
Managing Principle for The Outset Group

“Yes, they do!”

Moreover, these two disciplines intersect in ways that directly shape project effectiveness, morale, and outcomes.

Trace the activities of business analysis, and it is like a vine growing through and around the project life cycle. The vine then extends up the trellis to become embedded in the product life cycle, where the benefits from the investment are expected to flower and yield fruit.

From enterprise analysis, through planning, requirements management, communications liaison, product acceptance, and transfer to operations… business analysis and project management are often so intertwined as to be indistinguishable from one another.

-Jay Ress
Managing Principle for The Outset Group