Key Stakeholder Analysis Definition

Case Study A describes a two-year project with large teams in the banking sector, which fortunately has not yet been completed. At the beginning of the analysis (which began at the beginning of the second year), the main risks were clear. Team members were frustrated with the project for two reasons: (1) functional managers were constantly adding sub-projects, and (2) project requirements never seemed clear. The analysis showed that the primary client never participated in project planning conversations, that project team members were not encouraged to talk to clients, and that the well-defined requirements of the sub-project did not belong to anyone. Specifically, this analysis shows you the interests of all stakeholders who influence or may be affected by the project, the characteristics of proponents and opponents of the project, and the relationships and interfaces that exist between them. You can categorize your stakeholders into a flow/interest grid based on their power and interest in your work (see Figure 1). (Our interactive screen app makes this easy step, or you can download a grid template by clicking the “Download Template” button at the end of this article.) Forgetting to meet the needs of a single influential and powerful stakeholder at a critical time can potentially ruin a project. Who is this stakeholder and when is this critical moment? Typically, very little time is spent on: Although it is relatively difficult to analyze and document the data, this information can be used to further highlight assumptions and risks. For example, a project is put at risk because several key stakeholders all want to participate in project control functions.

This matrix can be overlaid with stakeholder information requirements (type, frequency and format) to support the development of the project communication plan. Now you need to know what your key stakeholders think of your project. You also need to find the best way to engage and communicate with them. The more approaches you use, the less likely you are to neglect key stakeholders. Whether you conduct a new stakeholder analysis every six months or before each new phase of the project, make sure you allocate the necessary resources to perform a recurring analysis appropriately. “You want your key stakeholders to be most interested in your project,” says Mattmann. This may mean communicating with them on a daily basis. “They never want to let their interest diminish because they are the most important people,” he said. To illustrate this, Mattmann described a hypothetical project to study and create a map of water in the western United States. This would involve many different systems and teams, such as people conducting field experiments and equipment such as planes, towers, and satellites. To perform the stakeholder analysis, the design team interviewed every stakeholder, whether they were sponsors, data providers, IT team, or project developers. •In your opinion, which stakeholders are at odds with your interests? The stakeholder management process of a project includes the following seven activities, but may include more: •Procurement planning: in a procurement situation, the customer relationship changes and “the buyer becomes the customer and is therefore an important stakeholder for the seller” (p.

123). The objective of the stakeholder analysis process is to develop a strategic vision of the human and institutional landscape, as well as the relationships between the different stakeholders and the issues that matter most to them. There are a few techniques that help with this process. A stakeholder map allows you to visually interpret how often you need to stay in touch with each stakeholder, how exactly you should manage them, and how to keep them satisfied and/or informed. To create a stakeholder map, you need to define some key dimensions, then create quadrants for the dimensions you want to optimize and group the stakeholders in that map, Mattmann explained. Before analyzing and managing stakeholders within a project, remember that a good project management tool can actually help managers select stakeholders for a project. By determining which team members have the bandwidth and skills needed for a particular project, leaders can identify stakeholders and communicate with them about the project before it has even begun. Stakeholder analysis is a technique that can help project team members understand the diversity of stakeholders who are interested in the project and the individual nuances that can influence project risks. In an environment where office policy often seems to obscure the progress of a project, stakeholder analysis provides the team with insights and actions that can help uncover and remove barriers.

There are several methods to perform stakeholder analysis. The two most common are stakeholder mapping and the salience model. This template allows you to classify stakeholders into eight categories, which are usually represented visually as a Venn diagram. You can do this by performing stakeholder analysis – an effective three-step process for identifying, prioritizing, and understanding your stakeholders. Case study B describes a four-year project involving an international technical sponsor and a distant financial sponsor. The project manager understood that this project would not work well if all parties did not understand their roles and responsibilities. In addition, he realized that customers and suppliers needed to be involved at all stages of the project, especially at the beginning. Figure 7 shows a static view of the project taken in the middle of the project execution. From the data collected, we can see that the key players have changed, but the objective has remained more or less the same. The project team saw its communication strategy as the key to the success of its project. While there were some issues along the way (especially growing pain), barriers to design and implementation were known before they became critical.

It becomes clear that understanding the needs and expectations of stakeholders is crucial to success: “The project management team must. manage and influence these expectations to ensure the success of the project” (p. 15). •Scope statement and scope verification: Successful project managers ensure that stakeholders have a common understanding and acceptance of the scope of the project (pp. 52, 56). When you`ve completed your analysis, you can move on to stakeholder management to determine how you communicate with each stakeholder. •The end-user`s requirement that the resulting product delivered at the end of the project be functional, based on its own definition of functional. The salience model[7] uses three dimensions: legitimacy (A), power (B) and urgency (C). It is represented in a Venn diagram containing 8 regions, each associated with a specific stakeholder type. [17] Because your stakeholder analysis will help you determine who to include in the project, you can then bring those people together for a launch and preliminary meetings to communicate the project`s goals and strategic plans.

Not all stakeholders deserve the same attention. Below are the 4 most commonly used templates for ranking stakeholders. Quadrant 2: Stakeholders who are aware of the project but object. These stakeholders may never be supportive and emergency measures may be required to manage the risks these negative stakeholders may pose to your project. However, when you consider how much a company is involved or influenced by product development (engineering, design, procurement, sales, marketing, product, finance, accounting, customer success, etc.), you can understand why stakeholder analysis is a particularly important exercise for a product manager. Understanding your stakeholders allows you to anticipate and predict their reactions to your project as it evolves. This allows you to plan actions that are more likely to gain support. Conducting a stakeholder analysis begins with gathering enough information to understand each participant`s needs, according to Chris Mattmann, director of technology and innovation (CTIO) at NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Typically, team designers interview each of the stakeholders to understand their processes, needs, constraints, and interests. It`s also important to monitor changes in a stakeholder`s status or classification in your stakeholder analysis as they move from one category to another. Once you`ve identified all your project stakeholders, documented their needs, and analyzed their interests and influence, you can visually map their names using an energy interest network to support your next steps. Stakeholder analysis exercises vary depending on the company, industry, and the teams that perform them (for example, project management or product management). However, there are useful steps common to most of these types of analysis. So many organizations conduct stakeholder analyses. Now that we have tried to understand the stakeholders, we need to assess their level of participation and their information needs.