Carrying forward our discussion from yesterday around BA communications, another point to remember is that the BA communications plan and work should be able to be imported into the PM’s Project Communications Plan.Saying that, the next area to reflect upon is the relationship between the project manager’s communication management activities and those of the BA.
The PMBOK highlights 4 key processes also;
- Project Communications Planning
- Information Distribution
- Performance reporting
- Manage Stakeholders
The BABOK is aiming to be a BOK of things specific to the BA role, but communications is so ephemeral and integrated into all project work it’s hard to distinguish it? What differentiates the BA Communications knowledge area from the PM Communications Management knowledge area?
I would say the main difference is in the focus and the level of attention paid to the details of the communications activity. A PM’s communications plan may identify that a Requirements Specification will be published, reviewed and approved, while the BA, who is managing the specific activities may also include in his or her plan the activities of scheduling walkthroughs of the document, booking meetings to discuss the contents, managing a log for feedback from reviews and so on.
This doesn’t seem to me to be a differentiator of any significance since differences in detail are relevant to size and scope of a project, to the organisational culture and PM style.
Maybe I’ll come back to this topic after I look at the desired outcomes for a BA communications KA.
