Stakeholder Management

What is Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder: is anyone who is impacted by the project and/or has influence over the project.

Stakeholder Management: The process through which we identify stakeholders, analyze their importance to the project, plan for and implement actions to engage with them

We want to increase the positive influences and decrease the negative influences through this process

Steps :

1. Identify

2. Analyze

3. Develop a communication plan

4. Engage and Influence

1. Identify Stakeholders

Do this as early as possible.

The first source of information would be your project charter, look at impacted areas/processes - who needs to be included, then look at the influential leaders in the impacted areas. Check for stakeholders outside the organization/ team.

Consider both groups and individuals

Now check with the sponsor and rest of the project team. This list can also be prepared with the project team.

Remember the project team and sponsor are also stakeholders.

Capture - Name, position, contact details, location

what have now is the stakeholder register

2. Analyze Stakeholders

Now we need to add columns to the stakeholder register and

Write high/ medium/low impact from the project and influence on the project in 2 different columns, for each group/individual.

This will help us figure out how to work with them, communicate with them. See the diagram below

You may now add a column to write their attitude/ support towards the project - you may simply write positive/neutral/negative

For key stakeholders, you may prepare a separate sheet as well, and write a specific commentary on engaging with them.

Often a lot of enthusiasm is displayed at the start of the project and a register is prepared and then as the grind of execution hits, the registers are forgotten. Let's keep the rhythm.

3. Develop Communication Plan

Once step 2 is done, you now need to figure out specific actions, assign stakeholders to your team or sponsor.

This is Project Communication, an excerpt is below

Its an output based on communication requirement analysis, which is done to understand the communication needs of the stakeholders, namely

Who requires – what information – from whom
What format – what media – what technology - what frequency

The method used to transfer information among project stakeholders may depend on particular project requirement/ priorities:

The urgency of need of information
The availability of technology
Ease of use
The size – complexity – confidentiality – of project

4. Engage & Influence Stakeholders

This is primarily the execution of the communication plan. However, as we all know engaging and influencing stakeholders takes a lot more than sending them a report or calling them to a group meeting.

A Project manager must manage the influence of various stakeholders in relation to the requirements and balance stakeholders’ interest

The level of success in this also determined by interpersonal, negotiating and influencing skills.

Some tips can be assessed from here

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