stakeholders in project management

Your project’s success depends on the satisfaction of yourproject stakeholders. Sometimes, you have completed the project, and the client has accepted alldeliverables. However, the project was not successful because some of your stakeholders are not happy.

Stakeholder satisfaction is a sign of successful project completion.

You might be wondering about the stakeholders in project management and whom you have to satisfy for the successful completion of your project.

I am writing this blog post to answer these queries, and I hope to clear up any doubts you may have about project stakeholders.

Stakeholders in Project Management

Definition:According to thebob手机客户端, “A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.”

更简单,利益相关者是一个人,一个组织p of people, or an organization that is interested in your project or is affected by its outcome, directly or indirectly. It may include project team members,project sponsors, and people outside your organization.

If the project is small, you will have a few stakeholders. For a larger project, you may have a huge number of stakeholders, which could include communities or the public. In this case,managing stakeholderswill be challenging.

For example, the number of stakeholders for a dam construction project will be large. They will include governments, local authorities, the population that is going to be displaced, the population living near the dam, environmentalists, the project management team, higher management, etc.

Not all stakeholders are equal. Everyone has different requirements and expectations. You should treat them according to their requirements and expectations. Failing to do so can jeopardize your project’s success.

If you understand stakeholders’ needs, expectations, and requirements, your chances of success increase. Overlooking any important stakeholder can make the situation more difficult for you at later stages of the project. It may cause a delay in the project, cost overrun, and in the most severe cases, abrupt project termination.

Types of Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders can be grouped into two categories:

  1. Internal Stakeholders
  2. External Stakeholders

Internal Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are within the organization. They are directly involved with the project or work with the organization managing the project.

Example of Internal Stakeholders

  • A sponsor
  • An internal customer or client (if the project is for an internal need of an organization)
  • A project team
  • A program manager
  • A portfolio manager
  • Management
  • Another group’s manager (e.g., functional manager, operational manager, admin manager, etc.).

These stakeholders generally have the highest interest in the project’s success.

External Stakeholders

外部利益相关者之外的组织. They are not directly involved with the project but are included by the project or the organization managing it.

Example of External Stakeholders

  • An external customer or client (if the project is a result of a contract)
  • An end user of the project’s outcome
  • A supplier
  • Subcontractors
  • The government
  • Local authorities
  • Local communities
  • The media

As you can see, external stakeholders include clients, governments, and local authorities, which are very powerful entities. Therefore, you have to manage them carefully.

Positive Stakeholders and Negative Stakeholders

Stakeholders can be positive or negative.

A positive stakeholder sees the project’s positive side and benefits from its success. These stakeholders help the project management team to complete the project successfully.

另一方面,消极的涉众认为outcome and may be negatively impacted by the project or its outcome. This type of stakeholder is less likely to contribute to the success of the project.

Many professionals think that competitors are also negative stakeholders, as your project affects them as well.

However, competitors are not negative stakeholders because you have to manage your stakeholders proactively to complete your project successfully, but you do not manage or fulfill your competitors’ requirements.

As we have seen in the earlier example, the public can be a stakeholder. In this case, it would be impractical to manage the whole population, so you will consult their public figures or leaders to understand their requirements and expectations.

Some examples of this type of project are related to mining, the environment, roads, railways, dam building, etc.

You should identify your stakeholders at a very early stage of the project and record them in thestakeholder register.

Some stakeholders will have low interest or influence on your project. However, you must also manage them because they could become influential stakeholders.

Identifying Stakeholders for Projects

Identifying project stakeholders is the first task after signing the project charter. This process ensures that all project stakeholders are identified so you can collect the requirements, develop a project management plan, and design a strategy to manage these stakeholders.

Visit the following post to learn about identifying project stakeholders.

How to Manage Project Stakeholders

To manage your project stakeholders, follow the steps below.

#1. Identify Stakeholders

This is the key process, and you should start identifying your project stakeholders after the project charter is signed.

You can start reviewing project documents such as the project charter, procurement documents, agreements, previous checklists, etc. Some useful tools are brainstorming, facilitated workshops, interviews, etc.

# 2。利益相关者分析

After identifying stakeholders for your project, you will analyze them to find their interests and influence on the project.

Some useful tools for stakeholder analysis are the salience model, power/interest grid, etc.

#3. Prioritize Stakeholders

After analyzing project stakeholders, you will prioritize them according to their power and interest in the project.

Prioritization will provide information on stakeholders who will require more attention or who can be ignored.

#4. Develop Stakeholder Management Plan

You will develop your stakeholder engagement plan based on the information collected so far. This plan will provide you with information on how to handle each stakeholder.

An influential and powerful stakeholder will receive more attention than a low-power and low-interest group of stakeholders.

Importance of Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder management helps you keep a healthy relationship with your stakeholders, understand their requirements, and fulfill their needs. It helps engage them throughout the project life cycle.

If your stakeholders are satisfied, you can complete the project smoothly. Unsatisfied stakeholders can create a hindrance, and this can affect yourproject objectives.

Stakeholder Vs Shareholder

Stakeholder and shareholder are different terms, though many professionals confuse these terms with each other.

A stakeholder is a person or group with any interest in the project or is impacted by its outcome. On the other hand, a shareholder has invested in the project or the business. All shareholders are stakeholders, but not all stakeholders are shareholders.

Summary

Stakeholders are individuals or a group of individuals who are affected by your project or have an interest in it. It is important to identify stakeholders at the beginning of the project and develop a strategy to manage them and their requirements. This will help you complete the project with minimal obstruction because getting them involved with your project will render the support you need.

What about your project’s stakeholders? How did you find them? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

This topic is important from a PMP certification exam point of view; you will come across many questions on this topic.