Clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of BA and PM

Business analysts and product managers both work for project success but they both work on different horizons and prioritize different outcomes. Many people generally think that they both carry almost similar roles and responsibilities, but the truth is entirely different. If product manager is likened to be a visionary, a business analyst is likened to be a solution specialist. The core difference in these roles is how vs why. A BA is more concerned with how and where a product manager is concerned with why. Once a business goal is finalized, BA dig deep into the functional requirements and is also a main point of contact for the business stakeholders and technical team, acting as a bridge between them to make sure the end solution meets the business requirements and goals. A product manager is responsible for the product long term vision, majorly focusing on what functionality to be built considering customer pain point after deep market research to make product exact market fit which can enhance business ROI. A product manager looks at the product from a wide-angle lens. PM focuses on market research by analyzing the competitor and identifying the market gaps. Based upon market research, PM created a roadmap to plan the product evolution, monitor KPI’s to make sure product makes financial sense to all the business stakeholders and investors and take constant feedback of the customer to make product market fit as per the trend. A product manager is more concerned with strategic horizon of the solution or the product. BA focuses more on the tactical horizon of the product or the solution by seeing it from zoom lens, focusing on immediate or upcoming development cycle. BA takes active part in requirement gathering, where he uses various elicitation techniques to extract requirement from the business stakeholders, converting vague requirements into the user stories or functional requirements. BA is a Master of Communication; he understands the language of both client and development team. After gathering requirements, BA prepares UML diagrams to communicate business requirements to the technical team. Taking active part in every development phase, BA makes sure all business requirements undergo development and at the same time prepares clients for UAT, ensuring final product meets business requirements. Both roles require good communication skills and higher emotional intelligence but the audience with which they communicate changes. Primary audience for a BA is clients, developers, QA and SME whereas for a PM its customer, marketing and sales executive. BA’s success is measured by accuracy and efficiency whereas as PM success is measured by outcomes and impact. In modern times, due to the rise of technology the line between BA and PM is blurring. There have been organizations now who expect a PM to wear a hat of a BA and carry out the responsibilities that come under the competency of business analyst and vice versa. However, understanding the distinction between the role BA focuses more on how business requirements can be integrated into a viable solution whereas a product manager is more concerned about the value it will create in the market and customer lives.