Stakeholders are the people or groups, that are impacted by the project and its deliverables. Effective stakeholder management is crucial to project success. Even if you finish a project on time, on budget, and with high quality, the project is only a success if the stakeholder agrees. The process entails Identifying, Analysing and Managing the stakeholders and their needs in an iterative manner.
A. Identifying:
You can’t start managing stakeholders until you know who they are. Who are the main groups or departments affected by your project? Examples of any project stakeholders in random order are:
- Project Manager(s)
- Project Team
- Management [Project Sponser, Functional (Resource) Managers, Decision makers, Veto power holders]
- Customers (Supply requirements, Provide funding)
- Fedral/Central or state Govt.
- Advocates, opponents and By-standers
B. Nominate:
In each groups you have identified pick someone to be the key individual. Who are the key opinion leaders within their groups? You may find that key people nominate themselves, which makes your role easier: it is better to work with people who want to be involved than those who you have to drag into the project. Your key, nominated stakeholders should ideally be people who are directly affected, with enough authority to make decisions about things that touch their departments. They are the person who you will use to channel communication back to their group.
C. Feel:
Influence and Interest are the two main variables of stakeholder engagement. If a stakeholder is interested but not influential they are not a priority. If a stakeholder is influential but not interested they can become a trouble for the project.
Contact them and explain about the project. Get them onboard and coming to project meetings if necessary. All this will help you understand how they feel about the work you are doing. Do they support the project? Or would they rather it was stopped now? What are the relationships between the groups? Ideally it is harmonious but at the other extreme there may be real or perceived problems between the different groups. What are the barriers to this group participating?
Your stakeholders may bring a mix of competing interests and will often act to further their own power, influence and survival. Such political maneuvering is often disguised as impartial and rational argument. Think about who are your major stakeholders. Think about what you will say to them to get each of them on side.
D. Observe:
Having established where your key stakeholders sit in relation to the project you can start to influence their attitudes. The aim is to watch people over time, and help them move towards a positive way of thinking: a way that will help you achieve your aims. Keep a close eye on people as their opinions will swing between positive and negative over the life of a project. A one-off analysis exercise is never enough: you have to continually monitor how people are reacting and manage accordingly.
E. Review:
People and job roles change. If you notice that their influence is slipping away, or they are less inclined to come to meetings or respond to emails, then ask them if they still want to be involved. If they say no, they could suggest someone else who would be a relevant addition to the team. Make sure you brief any new stakeholder representative on their roles and responsibilities, decisions in the pipeline and what decisions you will expect of them in future.
G. Manage:
The last step is to monitor and manage your stakeholders and their expectations as the project progresses - not just at the outset and when you need something from them. Put a note in your diary to give your key stakeholder representatives a quick call every now and then just to keep them up to date. This will help promote the project and also ensure the stakeholder concerned is mindful of the work being done. It can also help build your reputation as an excellent project manager! At the end of the project, thank them and manage them out of the team. You want a good relationship with them, that could last over many projects, but you don’t want to be their personal helpline six months after the project has finished, so make sure they know who now has operational responsibility now the project has closed.
The acronym formed by these six steps is INFORM.
It is likely that this will be an iterative process.
Managing stakeholder needs:
- Firstly, have agreement on the goals of the project. The goals must be clear and understood by all stakeholders. Listen and find out what needs to be done. Get all of the key stakeholders to work with you in devising the goals that will define the success of your program. Getting their input during the initial stages will give them a genuine "stake" in your program. Goal setting done well engages stakeholders and commits them to the program. Unless you have a well thought out strategy for dealing with negative reactions, the resisters to your goals will try to wear you down. Find out which of your resisters are actively fighting out in the open and which are working from the underground. Sometimes the reasons given for resisting change are a smokescreen. In these cases, you will need to do some digging to reveal the real reasons for the resistance. In some instances, resistance is a natural reaction to the propose changes. Document your understanding as project charter and statement of work (SOW).
- Second, there must be a plan that shows the overall path, clear responsibilities, and is used to measure the progress of the project. Implement the actions to resolve the stakeholder’s issues. Try to involve the stakeholder in the action plan to facilitate more buy-in and engagement. You may use a responsibility matrix
- Third, is to have constant, effective communication among everyone involved in the project. Report back on what you did and what the outcomes were to seek stakeholder satisfisfaction. Ask your stakeholders at the beginning of the project how they would like to stay informed and make sure you give it to them. Happy, informed, positive stakeholders will make it a lot easier for you to deliver your project successfully.
- Fourth is to have a controlled scope. Everyone involved in the project must understand exactly what the project will accomplish i.e. managing stakeholder expectations. Include Change Management
- Fifth is to have management support. You may not have the authority to make all the necessary decisions. You may have to rely on others to make the decisions so they must be effective at guiding other to make timely decision. Some people call it as “managing upward.”
Stakeholder Mapping:
Have a communication plan. In general terms the purpose is to manage project stakeholders and their expectations and to ensure clear and accurate project information is given out:
- Responsible - usually project participants need detailed project information and it must support their ability to participate on the project with their responsibilities
- Accountable - typically management are accountable and they want a clear, concise summary of progress and what risks there might be currently to a successful project
- Consult - usually impacted by the project and will wish to influence the project even if not participating directly; this group may also include experts such as quality and compliance. Typically need one level of detail greater than management that allows them to conclude that the project is "on track"
- Inform - usually the end users of the project and their support and commitment must be built over time starting from awareness, through understanding to mobilisation for change. Typically need to tell people why you are communicating [awareness, information, action...] and include a management style summary with a strong focus on benefits or what is in it for them
The acronym formed by these 4 steps is RACI
EXPLORE:
Managing stakeholder relations
Assessing stakeholder importance: an instrumental perspective
Types of stakeholder relationship
Problems with stakeholder collaboration
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