Example of Stakeholder Analysis: Part II

Stakeholder analysis is a process of systematically gathering and analyzing qualitative information (data) to determine whose interests should be taken into account when developing and or implementing a policy, program, or project.

Project managers can use a stakeholder analysis to identity the key stakeholder and to assess their knowledge, interests, positions, alliances, and importance related to the project. This allows project managers to interact more effectively with key stakeholders and to increase support for a given policy, program, or project. When this analysis is conducted before a project is implemented, project managers can detect and act to prevent potential misunderstandings about or opposition to the project. When a stakeholder analysis and other key tools are used to guide the implementation, project is more likely to succeed.

There are eight major steps in the process:

1. Planning the process: The first step in conducting a stakeholder analysis is to define the purpose of the analysis, identify the potential users of the information, and devise a plan for using the information. A discussion of these issues should be led by the “sponsor,” or initiator, of the stakeholder analysis.
2. Select an appropriate policy: For a stakeholder analysis to be useful, it must be focused on a specific project. In most cases, the sponsor will have identified a project, but it is important to ensure that the policy in question is an appropriate project for a stakeholder analysis before the process begins.
3. Identifying the key stakeholders is extremely important to the success of the analysis: Based on the resources available, the project management team should decide on the maximum number of stakeholders to be interviewed. The team should then define the list of stakeholders.
4. Plan to interview the priority stakeholders identified: to gain accurate information on their positions, interests, and ability to affect the process.
5. Collecting and recording the information: Before beginning the interviews, the project management team should gather and review secondary information on the priority stakeholders. Possible secondary information sources include: newspapers, institutional reports and publications, speeches, organization annual reports, political platforms, etc.
6. Filling in the stakeholder table: This step of the process involves taking detailed and often lengthy answers from the interviews and arranging them into a more concise and systematized format (for anonymity and to highlight the most significant information). By doing this, the project management team can eventually develop clear comparisons among the different stakeholders and concisely present this information to the project managers who will use it.
7. Analyzing the stakeholder table: Once the stakeholder table is complete, the information needs to be "analyzed." Such an analysis should focus on comparing information and developing conclusions about the stakeholders' relative importance, knowledge, interests, positions, and possible allies regarding the policy in question.
8. Using the information: The use of the information generated by the stakeholder analysis should be discussed during Step 1, Planning the Process, and should be reviewed again once the results have been analyzed. As mentioned, there are various ways to use the information from a stakeholder analysis—to provide input into other analyses, to develop action plans to increase support for a project, or to guide a participatory, consensus-building process.

When working on step 7, the working group should be able to conclude the following using the information in the stakeholder table:

• Who are the most important stakeholders?
• What is the stakeholders' knowledge of the policy?
• What are the stakeholders' positions on the specific policy?
• What do the stakeholders see as possible advantages or disadvantages of the policy?
• Which stakeholders might form alliances?