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Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

programmers.stackexchange.com

21–30 of 178 posts

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#21
post #13

Aside: Yet another useful and thought provoking question and set of answers on SE shut down "because it's not a good fit for the format".

It was closed after 2 pages of answers and hundreds of votes - not so problematic IMHO.

I disagree. Opinions change over time. Its a great place to observe that.

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#22
I used to be a programmer who transitioned into BA/PM role lately. I see and understand the pains of both sides. Sometimes, I want to switch into the technical/programmer mode where I want to solve/code the thing myself. The point is that these 3 roles even though not necessarily mutually exclusive, are very difficult to do at the same time especially in large corporate environments. At a startup, I am not sure if do need a separate BA/PM but when you have to deal with 100s of business users across multiple countries, get everyone to agree on scope/requirements, keep effective communication with all stakeholders etc. etc., you need people who can do all these. This is where a good BA/PM comes in. The value of a good BA/PM can never be undermined even though it can be argued that a developer usually fills these roles many times in certain circumstances. To summarize, a good BA/PM is not someone who only is good at business/domain knowledge or a set of tools, but is someone who can deal with people, glue teams together and is not afraid to wear many hats which could include cold calling team members, pestering business users to confirm things etc. etc.

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#23
post #2

They get paid the same as junior programmers where I work. They are deemed as equal value to the company. To be 100% honest a good developer should be able to take on all three roles. PM and BA are skills which should be built in as well along side other basics.

Where is this "good developer" exist?

Most good developers that I know of don't communicate as well as BA or PM when it comes to interfacing with non-technical people.

NB: Not to say that these developers are bad communicators. They're less patient, they tend to have an "ideal" picture, and they work better with computers than a normal human being.

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#24

Aside: Yet another useful and thought provoking question and set of answers on SE shut down "because it's not a good fit for the format".

Honestly, I don't think it is a useful or thought provoking question. As numerous people have pointed out, the entire premise is false. Intentionally or not, it's basically trolling for "programmers are great too!" type comments.

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#25
post #2

They get paid the same as junior programmers where I work. They are deemed as equal value to the company. To be 100% honest a good developer should be able to take on all three roles. PM and BA are skills which should be built in as well along side other basics.

Where is this "good developer" exist? Most good developers that I know of don't communicate as well as BA or PM when it comes to interfacing with non-technical people. NB: Not to say that these developers are bad communicators. They're less patient, they tend to have an "ideal" picture, and they work better with computers than a normal human being.

they're usually contractors these days to be honest.

I always sit in the middle between humans and machines and am quite happy getting my hands dirty with both sides. Communication and management is part of the job.

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#26
post #4

What companies are these people working for? The ones I've looked at and the ones my friends work at pay their programmers significantly more than PMs and BAs.

This; in my experience median compensation for programmers is comparable to PMs, and the high-end of programmer compensation is significantly higher than that for PMs.

A programmer high on the compensation scale will typically have decided to stay on the "Individual Contributor" track and top out as a "Distinguished Engineer" or similar title, but still be considered as a programmer. A PM who has advanced to a similar level, on the other hand, is likely to be some sort of VP or SVP and considered an "executive". That is to say the PM compensation track divergers, while the Engineer's stays the same

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#28
Long story short, PMs are closer to the money. When you're managing a project, you know you have a budget of X dollars to get it done. If you get it done in X-P dollars, you can take that to your boss and immediately show that you made, or saved, the company P dollars.

As a programmer or engineer, you may not even be directly aware of what the project's budget is, so it's harder for you to demonstrate how much value you're providing.

Re: Why do business analysts and PMs get higher salaries than programmers?

#29
post #19

Aside: Yet another useful and thought provoking question and set of answers on SE shut down "because it's not a good fit for the format".

+1. But neither coding horror nor joel give a sh*t about that: coding horror: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=4132668 - Basically says "If you're bitching about it, it's because it's working as intended" Joel: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=4132020 - Says "Yeah, but look at the quality" I just want a filter for high-activity closed SE Q/A's, that way I can read highly engaging and interesting topics.

create "mystackrunnethover.com" (or mystackoverfloweth.com) and just post those questions... use OSQA to keep the same format?
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