Stakeholder analysis will help to categorize the stakeholder so as to fulfill the stakeholder expectations as per the project needs.
As soon as you get into a project as a project manager, the first document that you would get input pertaining to the stakeholders is the project charter document.
Identifying the stakeholders and their communication preferences are very important to get their involvement in the project. If you see the communication knowledge area and stakeholder management knowledge area processes are going side by side.
Once you have identified the initial stakeholders, you need understand from each of them their roles and responsibilities, expectations and concerns pertaining to the project. This information is useful to profile stakeholders.
As you analyze the stakeholders, you may get more and more stakeholders added to the stakeholder register.
Once you have initial list of stakeholders and understand their roles and responsibilities and how they are impacted by the project, then you can draft the information as follows.
| Stakeholder Name | R &R | Expectations | Concerns | Categorization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe | Senior Management | Reusability of existing assets | Limited resources | Influencer |
| Smith | Sponsor | Project Success | Project should be completed within the constraints | Influencer |
Stakeholder Analysis
Once you have the initial stakeholder profile information you can categorize and perform stakeholder analysis by creating stakeholder power/ interest grid as follows:
When you create your stakeholders power/interest grid, you can figure which stakeholder has high or low power and the impact to your project. Also you can figure out which stakeholder has more or less interest on your project.
High Power and High Interest
If a stakeholder has high power and high interest, these are stakeholder you need to support your project. These are the decision makers who are always work for the success of the project. You should closely manage these stakeholders expectations and concerns.
High Power and Low Interest
If a stakeholder has high power and low interest, you need definitely keep them in the loop. Though their interest level is low on the project, since these are people with high power , you need to ensure you satisfy their expectations on the project.
Low Power and High Interest
These are the people who will work for the project, though they are the decision makers. You need to keep them in the loop and update them with the project information as the project progress.
Low Power and Low Interest
These are the people which would come in the last of row of your interest. They neither has interest on the project and they has low power on the project to impact. So you don’t need to worry much about them.
Analytical Techniques to understand the stakeholder Engagement in the project
Once you understand the stakeholder information and you categorize the stakeholders based on their power and interest on the project, then it is time make sure their involvement in the project.
You need ensure the you get the involvement of the stakeholder according to project needs.
You need to figure out what is their current level of engagement and what is the level of engagement the project require using the following scale.
There are 5 levels of stakeholder engagement as shown above.
Unaware
Stakeholders are unaware of the project. They do not have any information on the project. In this level the stakeholders will not be able to influence the project in any way.
Resistant
The stakeholder does not want or like the project or the decisions on the project. These are negative stakeholder and could be a potential risk to the project, if not handled properly.
Neutral
The stakeholder does not have any problem with your project neither the interest. So they are just neutral. The do not care about the outcome of the project.
Supportive
The stakeholder wants the project or decision to succeed.
Leading
Finally these are the stakeholder involve in every decision and actively helping in your project to make it a success. For example the sponsor.
As a project manager you need to figure out what is the current level of engagement in the project what the desired level of engagement with the following matrix.
| Stakeholder | Unaware | Resistant | Neutral | Supportive | Leading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder 1 | C | D | |||
| Stakeholder 2 | C | D | |||
| Stakeholder 3 | C | D | |||
| Stakeholder 4 | C | D |
Furthermore use the above table to strategize the stakeholder engagement in the project. Meaning that how do you strategize to get the desired engagement from the stakeholder on the project.
Conclusion
To conclude with, we have seen how important is the stakeholder analysis for the success of the project.
Eventually the tools and techniques explained in this blog post is used in stakeholder management knowledge area process to identify the stakeholder and plan the stakeholder management processes.
