Lecture 12

Project Stakeholder Management

Instructor
Hamza Ejaz
 Learning Objectives
• Understand the importance of project stakeholder
management throughout the life of a project
• Discuss the process of identifying stakeholders, how
to create a stakeholder register, and how to perform
a stakeholder analysis
• Describe the contents of a stakeholder management
plan

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 Learning Objectives (cont’d)
• Understand the process of managing
stakeholder engagement and how to use an
issue log effectively
• Explain methods for controlling stakeholder
engagement
• Discuss types of software available to assist in
project stakeholder management

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 Importance of Project Stakeholder
Management

• Because stakeholder management is so important

to project success, the Project Management
Institute decided to create an entire knowledge
area devoted to it as part of the PMBOK® Guide
• The purpose of project stakeholder management
is to identify all people or organizations affected
by a project, to analyze stakeholder expectations,
and to effectively engage stakeholders

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 Projects Often Cause Change
• Projects often cause changes in organizations, and
some people may lose their jobs when a project is
completed. Project managers might be viewed as
enemies if the project resulted in job losses for some
stakeholders
• By contrast, they could be viewed as allies if they
lead a project that helps increase profits, produce
new jobs, or increase pay for certain stakeholders
• In any case, project managers must learn to identify,
understand, and work with a variety of stakeholders
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 What Went Wrong?
• Changing the way work is done can send a shock wave
through an organization, leaving many people afraid and
even thinking about ways to stop or sabotage a project
• Donald White, founder and program manager at Defense
Systems Leaders in Washington, D.C., described situations
that can lead to project sabotage:
– Buy-in blues
– Short-term profits
– Overachieving
– Lack of respect

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 Project Stakeholder Management Processes
• Identifying stakeholders: Identifying everyone involved in the
project or affected by it, and determining the best ways to manage
relationships with them.
• Planning stakeholder management: Determining strategies to
effectively engage stakeholders
• Managing stakeholder engagement: Communicating and working
with project stakeholders to satisfy their needs and expectations,
resolving issues, and fostering engagement in project decisions and
activities
• Controlling stakeholder engagement: Monitoring stakeholder
relationships and adjusting plans and strategies for engaging
stakeholders as needed

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Project Stakeholder Management Summary

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 Identifying Stakeholders
• Internal project stakeholders generally include the project
sponsor, project team, support staff, and internal customers
for the project. Other internal stakeholders include top
management, other functional managers, and other project
managers because organizations have limited resources
• External project stakeholders include the project’s
customers (if they are external to the organization),
competitors, suppliers, and other external groups that are
potentially involved in the project or affected by it, such as
government officials and concerned citizens

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 Additional Stakeholders
• Other stakeholders including:
– Program director
– Project manager’s family
– Labor unions
– Potential customers
• It is also necessary to focus on stakeholders
with the most direct ties to a project, for
example only key suppliers

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 Stakeholder Register
• A stakeholder register includes basic information on
stakeholders:
– Identification information: The stakeholders’ names, positions,
locations, roles in the project, and contact information
– Assessment information: The stakeholders’ major requirements
and expectations, potential influences, and phases of the project
in which stakeholders have the most interest
– Stakeholder classification: Is the stakeholder internal or external
to the organization? Is the stakeholder a supporter of the project
or resistant to it?

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Sample Stakeholder Register

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 Classifying Stakeholders
• After identifying key project stakeholders, you
can use different classification models to
determine an approach for managing
stakeholder relationships
• A power/interest grid can be used to group
stakeholders based on their level of authority
(power) and their level of concern (interest)
for project outcomes

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Power/Interest Grid

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 Stakeholder Engagement Levels
• Unaware: Unaware of the project and its potential
impacts on them
• Resistant: Aware of the project yet resistant to
change
• Neutral: Aware of the project yet neither supportive
nor resistant
• Supportive: Aware of the project and supportive of
change
• Leading: Aware of the project
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 What Went Right?
• Instead of just saying “no” when your project sponsor asks for
something unreasonable, it is better to explain what is wrong with the
request and then present a realistic way to solve the problem at hand
• For example, Christa Ferguson, a PMP and independent program
manager in San Francisco, described how she handled a request from a
project sponsor to deliver a new tablet device in two months when she
knew she would need more time. Based on her experience, she knew
the RFQ for the effort alone would take almost a month. Christa quickly
researched the facts to propose a realistic delivery schedule.
• The project sponsor reset expectations once he learned what it took to
produce the tablets

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 Planning Stakeholder Management
• After identifying and analyzing stakeholders, project
teams should develop a plan for management them
• The stakeholder management plan can include:
– Current and desired engagement levels
– Interrelationships between stakeholders
– Communication requirements
– Potential management strategies for each stakeholders
– Methods for updating the stakeholder management plan

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 Sensitive Information
• Because a stakeholder management plan often
includes sensitive information, it should not be part
of the official project documents, which are normally
available for all stakeholders to review
• In many cases, only project managers and a few
other team members should prepare the stakeholder
management plan
• Parts of the stakeholder management plan are not
written down, and if they are, distribution is strictly
limited
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Sample Stakeholder Analysis

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 Managing Stakeholder Engagement
• Project success is often measured in terms of
customer/sponsor satisfaction
• Project sponsors often rank scope, time, and
cost goals in order of importance and provide
guidelines on how to balance the triple
constraint
• This ranking can be shown in an expectations
management matrix to help clarify expectations

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Expectations Management Matrix

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 Issue Logs
• Understanding the stakeholders’ expectations can
help in managing issues
• Issues should be documented in an issue log, a tool
used to document, monitor, and track issues that
need resolution
• Unresolved issues can be a major source of conflict
and result in stakeholder expectations not being met
• Issue logs can address other knowledge areas as
well

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Sample Issue Log

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 Best Practice
• Project managers are often faced with challenges,
especially in managing stakeholders
• Sometimes they simply cannot meet requests from
important stakeholders
• Suggestions for handling these situations include the
following:
– Be clear from the start
– Explain the consequences
– Have a contingency plan
– Avoid surprises
– Take a stand

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 Controlling Stakeholder Engagement
• You cannot control stakeholders, but you can
control their level of engagement
• Engagement involves a dialogue in which people
seek understanding and solutions to issues of
mutual concern
• Many teachers are familiar with various
techniques for engaging students
• It is important to set the proper tone at the start
of a class or project
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Example of Engaging or Not Engaging Students
(or Other Stakeholders)
• If a teacher (or manager) does nothing but lecture on
the first day of class (or at meetings) or criticizes the
first person who offers a comment, students (or
workers) will quickly decide that their best strategy is
to keep quiet and maybe not even attend the class
(or meetings)
• On the other hand, if the teacher (or manager) uses
a lot of activities to get all participants to speak or
use technology to participate, they will expect to be
active participants in future classes (or meetings)
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 Media Snapshot
• Many students today like to interact via text messages. Ellen
DeGeneres, a popular comedian with her own television show, likes
to poke fun at text messages in a segment based on amusing errors
caused by cell phone auto-correct features. For example, a father
had the following text exchange with his daughter:

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 Media Snapshot (continued)
• In addition to watching out for auto-correct
errors when messaging, users must also be
careful who they reply to and what they say in
reply.

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 Ways to Control Engagement
• Key stakeholders should be invited to actively participate
in a kick-off meeting rather than merely attending it
• The project manager should emphasize that a dialogue is
expected at the meeting, including texts or whatever
means of communication the stakeholders prefer. The
project manager should also meet with important
stakeholders before the kick-off meeting
• The project schedule should include activities and
deliverables related to stakeholder engagement, such as
surveys, reviews, demonstrations, and sign-offs.

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Stakeholders As Key Project Team Members
• On some IT projects, important stakeholders are
invited to be members of the project teams
• For example, when Northwest Airlines (now Delta)
was developing a new reservation system called
ResNet, it interviewed reservation agents for
positions as programmers on the project team
• Northwest made sure that user needs were
understood by having them actually develop the
system’s user interface

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 Using Software to Assist in Project
Stakeholder Management
• Productivity software, communications software, and
collaboration tools can promote stakeholder
engagement
• Social media can also help engage stakeholders. For
example, LinkedIn has thousands of groups for
project management professionals
• Some project management software includes
functionality like Facebook’s to encourage
relationship building on projects, like giving high fives
for a job well done
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 Social Media for Project Managers
• Elizabeth Harrin, author of Social Media for Project
Managers, describes the pros and cons of several social
media tools, including blogs, collaboration tools, instant
messaging, microblogs like Twitter and Facebook, podcasts,
RSS, social networks, vodcasts (video podcasts), webinars,
and wikis
• Harrin provides advice for when to use social media and
when not to use it
• As the saying goes, “A fool with a tool is still just a fool.” A
lot of stakeholder engagement requires old-fashioned
techniques like talking to someone!
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Questions?