From what I have seen, the individual who has the strongest understanding of the "As-Is" is the one who should be setting due dates.   I have never been exposed to a PM who came anywhere close to fitting this bill.  

Can anyone explain to me what inputs a PM uses in deciding due dates\schedules?  

Tony

Craig:

The way I understand your question is that it is kind of like asking why create a Context diagram (which is just a very high-level as-is).   Doesn't one need to know the extent of a project before estimating the time required for a project?   (Actually, for estimating, the context diagram needs to be decomposed to get higher grainularity for estimating.)

Also, the way I learned it, the task at hand - especially for a BA - is not just to lead in automating, but to lead in simplifying, integrating, and then automating.  If it is, then, we simplify the as-is and determine a way how to integrate the ss-Is.  And the only way to estimate on these to things is to know the extent of the as-is.

Tony

Craig:

I must admit:  I have been around for some time and I can not recall a project where there was not a significant need for the BA to scope things out .   Frankly, I have often wondered if projects such as you mention exist.   Maybe I have the word "complexity" tatooed on my forhead and don't know it - causing me to always end up on such projects?  

Wondering,

Tony