It has been a long-standing duel between the people who don the hat of a product manager and business analyst. The camps are so fiercely competing with each other these days that it has become a common talk to compare both job functions as an extension of enterprise Product Management strategies. And, that’s why there is so much competition. In traditional IT companies, business analysts would always dream of going the product management route as a logical path in their career.
In fact, for a very long time, product managers would attribute their selection in a product management project to their business analysis roles. Now, this has flipped on its head. Both roles think of each other as having an equal opportunity in the job market. And, that’s why it has become extremely important to stay competitive and earn newer and more relevant skill sets. A business analytics certification makes that happen. In this article, we will help you understand the role of business analytics certification courses in product management and how they have become an indispensable part of talent warfare.
What is a business analyst’s role?
A business analyst is a high-tech role in modern enterprise. IT teams rely on business analysts to decipher the hidden opportunities and challenges that influence the effectiveness and overall performance of people and systems involved in the operations. In 90 per cent of the companies, business analysts help primarily understand the various ways IT frameworks could be used more efficiently for better business outcomes.
To become successful business analysts, they should display a strong inclination toward data management, analytical thinking, and competence with data visualization techniques. At the current level of benchmarks in the hiring industry, companies also expect candidates to come with some knowledge of open source programming languages like Python and R that are used to further AI initiatives.
The role of business analysts has become so important in the modern era that it has forced decision makers to invest in better solutions and technologies to help business analysts with their jobs.
For example, the rise of big data and AI investments in the IT industry could all be attributed to the demands raised by the analysts who advocate outsourcing data management, operations, and governance to smarter and more reliable technologies like machine learning operations and robotic processes automation. The tech initiatives taken by business analysts have changed the equation of the modern industry, allowing other data-centric roles to develop, modernize and flourish with better results. The rise of big data engineers and AI analysts are prime examples of this movement in the technology market. They should all say thanks to the league of hardworking business analysts who strived to get this done at the enterprise and industrial levels.
Now that you know what a business analyst is expected to do, let’s understand what a product manager does and who manages whom.
In a product-centric company, product managers could be heading a team of analysts. In a data-centric company, this could be different, where a head of data could be leading a team of product developers and analysts. But, let’s assume, that both PM and BA are at par and work cohesively. In such a scenario, a product manager would build, simulate and market the product to various stakeholders within and outside the organization. The job revolves around ensuring the product is fit for market, fit for sales, and fit for profit generation. With new concepts emerging in the space of customer experience and personalization, organizations are relying more on business analysts than product managers to take the call. In most cases, the product and the analyst teams disagree due to technical differences.
But, let’s remember one thing—data and facts don’t lie—they are there to help make the right decisions. And, business analysts use this to the advantage of driving home their analysis in a meaningful manner. When product managers acquire analytical skills through business analytics certification courses, they begin to understand the point of view of their analyst colleagues.
All successful organizations have this thing in common between their analysts and product managers – they now have the same degree of love for business analytics, data science, and AI. As a cohesive team, analysts and product managers could display an equal love for business analytics in designing and implementing a product development roadmap where excellence is a benchmark and analytics is the backbone of success.