The quality of the requirements elicited can make or break any project. Once thought to be the sole responsibility of the business analyst, requirements are now of great importance to the project manager as well.
With the continued expansion of the Collect Requirements section in the PMBOK Guide®– 5th edition, project managers are becoming more involved in and placing greater importance on the elicitation and quality of requirements.
There has been ongoing discussion in both the business analyst and project management communities regarding who should be responsible for the collection of requirements; I came across this table at http://www.batimes.com/articles/the-project-manager-vs.-the-business-analyst.html that does a great job at comparing the PMBOK tasks to the BABOK tasks and shows how the project managers role and the business analysts role, align with and compliment each other.
| PMBOK® Task | BABOK® Task |
| 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan | 2.3 Plan Business Analysis Activities 2.5 Plan Requirements Management 2.6 Manage Business Analysis Performance |
| 4.4 Monitor and Control Project Work | 2.6 Manage Business Analysis Performance |
| 5.1 Plan Scope Management 5.2 Collect Requirements |
2.5 Plan Requirements Management Process 3.1-4 Elicitation: Prepare, Conduct, Document, Confirm 4.2 Manage Requirements Traceability 4.4.5.1 Requirements Documentation |
| 5.3 Define Scope | 5.4 Define Solution Scope |
| 5.4 Create WBS 5.6 Control Scope |
4.1 Manage Solution Scope 5.4 Define Solution Scope |
| 5.5 Validate Scope | 7.5 Validate Solution |
| 8.3 Quality Control (Testing-monitoring and recording results) | 7.6 Evaluate Solution Performance(Results analysis and recommendation) |
| 13.1 Identify Stakeholders | 2.2 Conduct Stakeholder Analysis |
| 10.1 Plan Communications Management | 2.4 Plan Business Analysis Communication |
| 10.2 Manage Communications 10.3 Control Communications |
4.5 Communicate Requirements 2.6 Manage Business Analysis Performance |
When you first read in the PMBOK that project managers have the task of collecting requirements, it sounds as if they should now be responsible for collecting the requirements; upon further review it becomes apparent that the Project Manager is rather responsible to ensure the activities for collecting requirements are covered in the project management activities and monitored as part of the project, with business analyst maintaining responsibility to execute the task of collecting or eliciting requirements and keeping the project manager apprised of the progress and any roadblocks encountered.
In summary, the business analyst and the project manager both play important roles on projects for a lot of the same activities; the combination of a strong project manager and a strong business analyst who can collaborate and work well together will be the foundation for success in any project.