what must know stakeholder

O

« Back | Home » Resources » Pm : What You Must Know About Stakeholder Management

What You Must Know About StakeholderManagement

Bonnie Cooper, PMP®

Why Stakeholder Management?

ne of the most critical aspects of project management is doing what’s necessary

and control relationships with all individuals that the project impacts. In this articl

learn techniques for identifying stakeholders, analyzing their influence on the proj

developing strategies to communicate, set boundaries, and manage competing expectatio

By successfully managing your stakeholders, you will be better able to keep a lid on scope

ensure project requirements are aligned, understand tolerance for risk, and mitigate issue

otherwise delay the project. Good stakeholder management is a testimony to your influen

organization, and a key component to a healthy project environment.

Stakeholder Impact on Project Success

Effective project managers understand that to get results they must create an atmosphere

enablement. This concept is reinforced in research published in The Standish Group’s fa

report which revealed that the majority of information technology projects fail, and for thos

succeed, what constitutes the top reasons for success. The number one reason for proje

cited as user involvement. Healthy user involvement is supported by an emphasis on qua

relationships (trust and structure), expectation management (achievable metrics, timing),

business communications (talking and writing plainly). Other stakeholder-based contribut

success include executive support (visible sponsorship toward the core values of the proje

emotional maturity of the project manager (ability to rally stakeholders to the common pur

effective use of the organization’s ecosystem (infrastructure, procurement, facilities, legal,

support the project.

Next is the process to help you define this universe of stakeholders and what is needed to

support.

Identify Project Stakeholders

A stakeholder is the “person, or organization that is actively involved in the project, or who

may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. A stake

also exert influence over the project and its deliverables.” An output of the initiation step o

the charter which often includes a section listing the organization’s functional areas involv

project. So, early in the project startup process, you begin to uncover project stakeholder

unsure, ask yourself who will contribute to this project, or, who will be affected by it? Thin

business process for contributors, or the organization’s political climate for potential impac

forget to consider external partners. Work with your project sponsor and others close to t

identify all potential stakeholders. Interview key project participants to help you uncover m

stakeholders. Here is a list of common stakeholders to get you started:

Project manager Resource managers

Project team members Senior management

Project sponsor Suppliers and vendors/subcontractors

of 4What You Must Know About Stakeholder Management :: White Papers & Articles :: ...

3/19/2012

Customers Community

Support staff Government agencies/regulators

Functional managers Media / Marketing / Public Relations

Users Shareholders

Conduct a Stakeholder Analysis

Your list of stakeholders can be very large, and you probably don’t want to expend equal e

energy on every stakeholder. Stakeholder analysis involves three key steps:

Identify the relevant information for each stakeholder: relevant information are things

particular interest in the project, their role in the project, their level of authority (positio

and expectations of the project.

■

Identify the potential impact or support of each stakeholder: this can be simple like u

measures low and high.

■

Assess how key stakeholders are likely to react to various situations: another measu

sensitivity or high sensitivity

■

Your analysis can be plotted into a 2x2 grid that shows the stakeholder’s relationship to th

project. This helps categorize stakeholders and determine where project management sho

efforts. It is also a key input into the communications, risk and scope plans.

In the 2x2 grid, the X horizontal axis identifies the level of interest. This is the measure o

they will be affected by the outcome of the project from low to high. The Y vertical axis of

identifies the level of power. This is the measure of how much a stakeholder can affect th

a project from low to high. So in a 2x2 grid there are four squares.

Top left is high power, low interest: stakeholders who plot to this square should be ke•

Top right is high power, high interest: stakeholders who plot to this square should be

closely.

•

Bottom left is low power, low interest: stakeholders who plot to this square should be•

Bottom right is low power, high interest: stakeholders who plot to this square should

informed.

•

Suffice it to say, these are important artifacts to help the project manager, and because of

nature of the information, shouldn’t be shared or distributed widely.

Manage Stakeholders

As we can see, stakeholders vary in influence, expectations, and interests and all have th

impact the project. The project manager’s goal is to leverage stakeholder relationships an

coalitions that foster project success. Warning signs that stakeholder management is suff

missed deadlines, scope creep, confusion, conflict, and churning. Often this is indicative

priorities, a lack of focus, or a lack of commitment. In discussing these issues with projec

always ask two questions: 1) what is the communications plan (how is information shared

what is your project governance structure (how do people plug in, decisions get made, iss

escalated)?

The goal of a successful communications approach is to manage expectations and minim

As much as possible, you are trying to manage the information that people get, their perce

clarify the kind of feedback that you need in order to be effective in delivering the project.

communications planning matrix takes the stakeholder analysis and identifies each stakeh

stakeholder group, the role they play on the project, what must be communicated, when (

how (format of communication) and whether a response is required. At minimum, regular

reports should be distributed to a wide audience. Then there are various more intimate w

discuss project health, involve key players in getting decisions made, and sharing those d

The project manager’s number one responsibility in the project is to communicate (> 90%

and they must demonstrate flexibility in how that communication is delivered to best meet

their stakeholders. Communication is one of the key factors that help keep stakeholders i


3/19/2012

In terms of the governance structure, at minimum there is a core team and some level of s

sponsor or multiple senior managers). Regular meetings are set up, roles and responsibi

delineated, and it is clear how risks, scope changes, issues or other project impacts are e

decisions. The project manager is leveraging this structure to ensure communications are

roadblocks are removed, and stakeholder behaviors are monitored. Needless to say, the

sponsor is very active and visible in project governance, especially to help keep all stakeh

focused on their common goal.

Even with all this planning, it is good to have special tactics to deal with different types of

In his book, The Handbook of Program Management, James T. Brown describes different

and these tactics, which may work better with one type of stakeholder than another, but a

have in your toolkit:

demonstrate competence■

buffer from the team■

advocate for those who can’t■

ensure traceability of agreements, requests, or decisions■

make sure there is a structure to engage■

make visible lost time (or other impacts) due to delayed responses■

encourage delegation of authority if possible■

look for informal settings to access busy stakeholders■

Make sure to cultivate your ideal stakeholders and publicize their example to others. Show

proactively prioritize, make themselves available, accept accountability, show an interest,

motivate the team. This can be anyone from the powerful project sponsor to the shy but d

teammate.

In closing, what does success look like from a stakeholder point of view? Satisfied stakeh

what they need, can see business value in the results, and identify your project as an ove

experience.

For more information on this topic, as well as how Corporate Education Group can

optimize your organization’s performance, contact us or call 1.800.288.7246 (US on

+1.978.649.8200.

About the Author:

Bonnie Cooper, PMP®, is an instructor and subject matter expert for Corporate Education

is also a twenty-year information technology professional, currently Program Director for t

Massachusetts Medical Society’s (MMS) Corporate IT Program Office. In her current role,

responsible for coordinating the efforts of project teams, overseeing the implementation o

standards, managing the corporate IT strategic plan, and leading the program to re-engine

membership platform for MMS.

© 2012 Corporate Education Group, operated by Vatterott Educational Centers, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Boston University Corporate

PMI©, PMP©, CAPM©, PgMP©, PMBOK© and the PMI® Registered Education Provider logo are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. PRINCE2© is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce. CBAP© and IIBA© are registered

One EChelm1.800+1.97

RESOURCE CENTER

White Papers & Articles

Career Resources

Tools, Templates & Checklists

Webinars & Events

Resource Center


3/19/2012

Education Center is part of the Corporate Education Group.

trademarks of International Institute of Business Analysis. All other trademarks mentioned on this site are property of their respective owners.

info@© 201

Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Legal Notice


3/19/2012

what must know stakeholder

Documents