In the third article of this series, Natasha Baker provides an example of a stakeholder analysis. It is important to conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify these individuals or groups including their name, organization, role on the project, level of interest, and influence.
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholders are people with a vested interest in the success of the project, whose support, or cooperation is necessary for the project to succeed. Stakeholder buy-in will make the difference in time to complete the project. In some cases, the biggest barrier to project success has been stakeholders.
In project management stakeholders are people, groups, or institutions with interests in a project or program. Stakeholders can be customers, the local community, managerial staff, non-managerial staff, a government entity, and both private and public owners (shareholders). It can be virtually anyone as long as that person or group has something to do with the project. Stakeholders will provide important information during the development stage and throughout the project. A stakeholder is anyone who will be affected by the project. It is important to conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify these individuals or groups including:
- name
- organization
- role on the project
- level of interest
- level of influence
- unique facts
- expectations (how they define success)
- ways to manage their expectations
This information is important because it is these individuals who will identify the system requirements and provide project resources and support. If the team misses an important stakeholder or doesn’t manage the stakeholders’ expectations, these individuals could work against the project and keep it from achieving its objectives. A sample stakeholder analysis follows:
Sample Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder Analysis
It is common for the project manager(s) to schedule face-to-face meetings with key stakeholders at the beginning of the project. One of the most important things to get from these meetings is how the stakeholder defines project success (their expectations). This information can then be used to refine the project purpose and objectives. If for some reason the stakeholders’ expectations are different than those of the project team, this is an opportunity to communicate this and begin to manage these expectations. These will also need to be managed throughout the project, as stakeholder expectations often change over time. By including key stakeholders in regular status meetings and sending this type of information to other stakeholders as part of the project communications plan, the project manager can better manage these changing expectations.
Stakeholder Analysis Tempale
You can download a copy of this stakeholder analysis in the Project Management Media Gallery.
Examples of Stakeholder Analysis
In this three-part article series, Natasha Baker examines the stakeholder analysis. In part one she defines the term stakeholder analysis. Part two explains the importance of a stakeholder analysis in project management, and in the third article she gives real-life examples of stakeholder analysis.