Project Management

Staking Out the Stakeholders

George Spafford

Topics: Manufacturing

We all know the definition of who stakeholders are: They are people who are either directly involved in a project, who may be impacted by a project or who can influence a project. The need to involve these people is very important because without the key people, a project can have incomplete requirements, political issues, implementation problems and so on. Without a doubt, there is a strong need to identify stakeholders as early as possible.

 

Track Them
One of the tasks is to formally document potential stakeholders. The Stakeholder Map is an Excel file, a simple template that can be used for tracking and high-level influence mapping. Shortly, we'll discuss the use of a map in more detail.

 

Note: Stakeholder maps are very sensitive. Accidental disclosure can result in major problems. Be very certain to limit distribution and guard the opinions that people have entrusted you with.

 

Automatic Considerations
There are certain groups that project teams always need to consider. It is a wise idea to have a list of the various "typical" stakeholder categories to use as a guide. For example, while discussing the project with your sponsor(s), you may want to discuss representation from some or all of the following areas:

 

  • Accounting/…

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